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THE CONTEMPORAR Y SCIENCE SERIES. 
Edited by HAVELOCK ELLIS. 



THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION. 



THE PSYCHOLOGY 
OF RELIGION: 



AN EMPIRICAL STUDY OF THE GROWTH OF 
RELIGIOUS CONSCIOUSNESS 



BY 



EDWIN DILLER STARBUCK, Tk.d. 

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OK EDUCATION AT LELAND STANFORD 
JUMOR UNIVLKM IV 



P?-eface by 
WILLIAM JAMES 

•PROFESSOR OF PHILOSOPHY AT HARVARD UNIVERSITY 



THIRD EDITION 



THE WALTER SCOTT PUBLISHING CO, LTD.. 

PATERNOSTER SQUARE, LONDON, E.C. 

CHARLES SCRIBNERS SONS, 

153-157 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK. 

ici 1. 






/ 1_ 



1 



MY WIFE 

WITHOUT WHOSE HELP AND ENCOURAGEMENT 

THIS STUDY COULD NOT HAVE 

BEEN PREPARED 



PREFACE 

The author of the following pages has thought in his 
modesty that, since his name is as yet unknown to fame, 
his book might gain a prompter recognition if it were 
prefaced by a word of recommendation from some more 
hardened writer. Believing the book to be valuable, I 
am glad to be able to write such a preface. 

Many years ago Dr Starbuck, then a student in 
Harvard University, tried to enlist my sympathies in 
his statistical inquiry into the religious ideas and ex- 
periences of the circumambient population. I fear that 
to his mind I rather damned the whole project with my 
words of faint praise. The question-circular method 
of collecting information had already, in America, 
reached the proportions of an incipient nuisance in 
psychological and pedagogical matters. Dr Starbuck's 
questions were of a peculiarly searching and intimate 
nature, to which it seemed possible that an undue number 
of answers from egotists lacking in sincerity might 
come. Moreover, so few minds have the least spark of 
originality that answers to questions scattered broadcast 
would be likely to show a purely conventional content. 
The writers' ideas, as well as their phraseology, would be 
the stock-in-trade of the Protestant Volksgeist, histori- 
cally and not psychologically based ; and, being in it one's 
self, one might as well cipher it all out a priori as seek to 

vii 



viii PREFACE 

collect it in this burdensome, inductive fashion. I think 
I said to Dr Starbuck that I expected the chief result of 
his circulars would be a certain number of individual 
answers relating peculiar experiences and ideas in a way 
that might be held as typical. The sorting and extract- 
ing of percentages and reducing to averages, I thought, 
would give results of comparatively little significance. 

But Dr Starbuck kept all the more resolutely at his 
task, which has involved an almost incredible amount 
of drudging labour. I have handled and read a large 
proportion of his raw material, and I have just finished 
reading the revised proofs of the book. I must say 
that the results amply justify his own confidence in 
his methods, and that I feel somewhat ashamed at 
present of the littleness of my own faith. 

The material, quite apart from the many acutely 
interesting individual confessions which it contains, is 
evidently sincere in its general mass. The Volksgeist 
of course dictates its special phraseology and most of 
its conceptions, which are almost without exception 
Protestant, and predominantly of the Evangelical sort; 
and for comparative purposes similar collections ought 
yet to be made from Catholic, Jewish, Mohammedan, 
Buddhist and Hindoo sources. 

But it has been Dr Starbuck's express aim to dis- 
engage the general from the specific and local in his 
critical discussion, and to reduce the reports to their 
most universal psychological value. It seems to me 
that here the statistical method has held its own, and 
that its percentages and averages have proved to possess 



PREFACE ix 

genuine significance. Dr Starbucks conclusion, for 
example, that ' conversion ' is not a unique experience, 
but has its correspondences in the common events of 
moral and religious development, emerges from the 
general parallelism of ages, sexes, and symptoms shown 
by statistical comparison of different types of personal 
evolution, in some of which conversion, technically so 
called, was present, whilst it was absent in others. Such 
statistical arguments are not mathematical proofs, but 
they support presumptions and establish probabilities, 
and in spite of the lack of precision in many of their 
data, they yield results not to be got at in any less 
clumsy way. 

Rightly interpreted, the whole tendency of Dr Star- 
buck's patient labour is to bring compromise and 
conciliation into the long standing feud of Science 
and Religion. Your ' evangelical ' extremist will have it 
that conversion is an absolutely supernatural event, with 
nothing cognate to it in ordinary psychology. Your 
'scientist* sectary, on the other hand, sees nothing in it 
but hysterics and emotionalism, an absolutely pernicious 
pathological disturbance. For Dr Starbuck, it is not 
necessarily either of these things. It may in countless 
cases be a perfectly normal psychologic crisis, marking 
the transition from the child's world to the wider world 
of youth, or from that of youth to that of maturity — a 
crisis which the evangelical machinery only methodically 
emphasises, abridges and regulates. 

But I must not in this preface forestall the results 
of the pages that follow it. They group together a 



x PREFACE 

mass of hitherto unpublished facts, forming a most 
interesting contribution both to individual and to 
collective psychology. They interpret these facts with 
rare discriminatingness and liberality — broad-minded- 
ness being indeed their most striking characteristic. 
They explain two extremes of opinion to each other 
in so sympathetic a way that, although either may 
think the last word has yet to be said, neither will be 
left with that sense of irremediable misunderstanding 
which is so common after disputes between scientific 
and religious persons. And, finally, they draw sagacious 
educational inferences. On the whole, then, Christians 
and Scientists alike must find in them matter for edifica- 
tion and improvement. 

Dr Starbuck, in short, has made a weighty addition 
to that great process of taking account of psychological 
and sociological stock, with which our generation has 
come to occupy itself so busily. He has broken 
ground in a new place, his only predecessor (so far 
as I am aware) being Dr Leuba, in his similar but less 
elaborate investigation in Volume VII. of the American 
Journal of Psychology, The examples ought to find 
imitators, and the inquiry ought to be extended to 
other lands, and to populations of other faiths. 

I have no hesitation in recommending the volume, 
both for its religious and for its psychological interest. 
I am sure it will obtain the prompt recognition which 
its importance as a documentary study of human 
nature deserves. 

WILLIAM JAMES. 

Harvard University, October 1899. 



AUTHOR'S PREFACE 

In 1890 I read a paper before the Indiana College 
Association, which was the first crystallisation of vague 
ideas which had been forming, that religion might be 
studied in the more careful ways we call scientific, with 
profit to both science and religion. This was elaborated 
still further, on the basis of empirical data, in two 
lectures, in 1894 and 1895, before the Harvard Religious 
Union. These were expanded later into two articles in 
the American Journal of Psychology — the first, * A Study 
of Conversion/ in January 1897 ; and the other, ' Some 
Aspects of Religious Growth/ in October 1897. The 
interest shown in the articles, and the fact that the 
subject has since then been steadily growing, seem to 
warrant the presentation of the results in a more 
permanent and generally accessible form. 

In setting out to work in a relatively new field, there 
are, of course, many crudities and imperfections, which 
will have to be sifted out as such studies continue. 
However, there is much, I trust, which will stand the 
test, and form a nucleus for the prosecution of similar 
investigations along many kindred lines. 

I wish to acknowledge gratefully the services of those 
persons, several hundreds in number, who have furnished 



xii AUTHOR'S PREFACE 

the raw material out of which the contents of this 
volume are formed. Being, as it is, a purely empirical 
study, it could not have arisen at all without their 
co-operation, which, to a surprising degree, has been 
warmly given. I am sorry that it is not possible to 
give them credit individually for their part in the work, 
especially those who have been most active in obtaining 
replies to the question-lists ; but there are too many 
for personal mention. 

I wish especially to acknowledge the active sym- 
pathy and encouragement of Dr G. Stanley Hall, whose 
interest had already drawn him in this direction ; and 
also that of President David Starr Jordan, whose 
recognition of the value of the application of scientific 
methods to the study of religion led him to give it a 
place in the curriculum of Stanford University, where 
it has had two years of peaceful growth. 

I regret having been unable, in the presentation 

which follows, to take into account sufficiently the 

work of other persons who are working on the same 

topics by different methods — philosophical, sociological, 

theological, and the like. To do so would partially 

have defeated the end in view, which is simply to make 

a faithful inductive generalisation. When several 

empirical studies are made, then it will be time enough 

to begin working out the kinship between them and 

synthesising them. 

E. D. S. 



LIST OF TABLES 

TABLE PAGF. 

I. — Showing the number of conversions which occur each 

year in several groups of persons . . • 33 

II. — Showing the relation between the years of greatest fre- 
quency of conversion and puberty in both sexes . 40 
III. — Showing the relation in time between conversion and 

puberty ...... 42 

IV. — Showing the relation in time between conversion and 

most rapid bodily growth in individual instances . 42 

V. — Showing by how much conversion precedes or follows 

puberty ...... 44 

VI. — Showing the relative frequency of certain motives and 

forces which lead to conversion . . . 52 

VII. — A comparison of the revival and non-revival cases in 

regard to the motives and forces leading to conversion 54 

VIII. — Representing the different ways in which the sense of sin 
shows itself, as determined by temperament and by 
whether the ideal life or the sinful life is dominant in 
consciousness ...... 59 

IX. — Showing the relative prominence of the various mental 

and bodily affections for both sexes . . .63 

X. — Showing the frequency in per cents, of different mental and 
bodily affections preceding conversion in revival cases 
as compared with others . . . 6j 

XL — Showing the relative frequency of certain things regarded 

as central in conversion . . . .94 

XII. — Comparing the revival and non-revival cases in regard 

to certain elements looked upon as central in conversion 96 
xiii 



xiv LIST OF TABLES 

TABLE PAGE 

XIII. — Showing the relation between certain conviction experi- 
ences and the elements thought to be central at the 
point of transition • . . . 97 

XIIIa. — Showing the result of an attempt to estimate the degree 

of the conscious element present in conversions . 104 

XIV. — Showing the relative prominence of some characteristic 

feelings following conversion . . . .121 

XV. — Showing the relation between the pre-conversion and the 

post-conversion feelings . . . .123 

XVI. — Showing the percentage of cases in which a changed re- 
lation to God, nature and persons was mentioned as 
the result of conversion . . . ,128 

XVII. — Showing distribution of cases used, according to age • 187 
XVIII. — Showing the relative prominence of some features of child- 
hood religion ♦ . . . . .192 

XIX. — Showing some facts in" regard to religious clarification at 

the beginning of adolescence . . . .198 

XX. — Showing the relative prominence of the ways in which 

storm and stress manifests itself . . . 220 

XXI. — Showing the relative prominence of the occasions of re- 
ligious doubt ...... 236 

XXII. — Showing the relative prominence of the first objects 

of doubt ...... 238 

XXIII. — Showing the actual prominence of certain elements 
which take the place of religious feeling during doubt 
and storm and stress ..... 273 

XXIV. — Showing some facts in regard to the trend of religious 

experience ...... 282 

XXV. — Showing the relative prominence of the external influ- 
ences which shape the religious life . . . 294 
XXVI. — Showing in per cent, of cases the most central religious 

beliefs ....... 312 

XXVII. — Showing how religious beliefs vary in different stages 

of development . . . . .316 

XXVIII. — Showing how beliefs vary with age . . . 320 

XXIX. — Showing the absolute and relative prominence of religious 

feelings ,«,... 332 



LIST OF TABLES xv 



PAGE 



XXX. — Showing the absolute and relative prominence of certain 

religious ideals ...... 343 

XXXI. — Showing the frequency and nature of the post-conver- 
sion struggles . . . . . 357 

XXXII. — Comparing the ideals of the conversion and non-con- 
version cases . . . . . .371 



LIST OF FIGURES 



I. — Curves showing the frequency of conversions in different years 
2. — Curve showing the frequency of conversions of Drew theo- 
logical students and general curve for males 
3. — Curves for height and weight of average American boys and 

girls 

4. — Showing the frequency of various motives for different years 
(females) ...... 

5. — Diagram'representing the feelings at the time of conversion 
6. — Illustrating roughly the mental processes at conversion, as 

shown by the feeling accompaniments 
7. — Before conversion 
8. — Conversion 
9. — Before Conversion 
10. — Conversion . . 

11. — (1) Conviction (2) Crisis (3) New Life 
12. — Showing the distribution according to years of cases of 

spontaneous awakening, deepened interest, etc. 
13. — Composite curves of religious awakenings 
14. — Diagram representing adolescent awakening , 



PAGE 

29 
32 

39 

56 

84 



no 
no 

115 

115 
159 

202 

205 
253 



XVI 1 



CONTENTS 



CHAP. 

I. — Introduction 



PAGE 
I 



Part I. — Conversion 

II.— Sources for the Study of Conversion 
III. — The Age of Conversion 

IV. — The Motives and Forces leading to Conversion 
V. — Experiences preceding Conversion 
VI. — The Mental and Bodily Affections immediately 
panying Conversion . 

VII. — In what Conversion consists, 
VIII. — The Conscious and Sub-Conscious Elements in Con- 
version .... 
IX. — The Quality of Feeling following Conversion 
X.— The Character of the New Life . 
XI. — Conversion as a Normal Human Experience 
XII. — A General View of Conversion . 
XIII. — The Abnormal Aspect of Conversion 



21 

2S 

49 
58 

76 
90 

IOI 

118 
125 
135 
145 
163 



Part II. — Lines of Religious Growth not involving 
Conversion 

XIV.— Sources of Data .... 1S3 

XV. — The Religion of Childhood . . . , 188 

XVI. — Adolescence — Spontaneous Religious Awakenings . 195 

XVII. — Adolescence— Storm and Stress . . .213 



xx CONTENTS 



CHAP PAGE 

232 



XVIII. — Adolescence — Doubt . 
XIX. — Adolescence — Alienation 
XX. — Adolescence — The Birth of a Larger Self 
XXI. — Adolescence — Substitutes for Religious Feeling . 
XXII. — Adult Life — The Period of Reconstruction 
XXIII. — External Influences . 
XXIV. — Growth without Definite Transitions 
XXV.— Adult Life— Beliefs . 
XXVI.— Adult Life— Religious Feelings 
XXVII. — Adult Life — Motives and Purposes 



244 

251 
268 
277 
294 
298 
3ii 
324 
337 



Part III. — Comparison of the Lines of Growth with 

AND WITHOUT CONVERSION 

XXVIII. — The Line of Growth following Conversion . -353 

XXIX. — Sanctification . . . . , -375 

XXX. — A General View of the Line of Religious Growth . 392 

XXXI. — Some Educational Inferences .... 408 



The Psychology of Religion 



CHAPTER I 

INTRODUCTION 

Science has conquered one field after another, until 
now it is entering the most complex, the most in- 
accessible, and, of all, the most sacred domain — that of 
religion. The Psychology of Religion has for its work 
to carry the well-established methods of science into the 
analysis and organisation of the facts of the religious 
consciousness, and to ascertain the laws which determine 
its growth and character. 

It will be a source of delight to many persons, and of 
regret to others, that the attempt is at last made to 
study the facts of religion by scientific methods. Those 
who believe that law reigns, not only in the physical 
world but in the mental and spiritual — in other words, 
that we live in a lawful universe — and who believe, 
furthermore, that we are helped in becoming lawful 
creatures by comprehending the order that reigns, will 
hail this new development with gladness. Those, on 
the other hand, who hold conceptions which separate 
sharply the spiritual realm from the mundane, who 
acknowledge law and the consequent validity of 
science in the one, but set the other under the control 
of voluntary and arbitrary decrees, will look on a 
scientific study of religion with distrust and suspicion. 
In fact, during the years that these studies in the psy- 



2 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

chology of religion have been in progress the warning 
has often been given in good faith that we are entering 
upon a hopeless quest. The ways of God, it is said, are 
beyond human comprehension. * The wind bloweth 
where it listeth and thou hearest the sound thereof, but 
canst not tell whence it cometh or whither it goeth ; so 
is everyone that is born of the Spirit/ is the oft- 
repeated quotation. Now, it is not the purpose of this 
chapter to answer objections to the scientific study of 
religion or to justify it — a thing which may safely be 
left to time — but to help the patient student of the 
pages which follow to reap what good they may contain 
by falling in line with their point of view. 

Let us understand each other in the beginning. We 
proceed on the assumption that this is a lawful universe ; 
that there is no fraction of any part of it which is 
not entirely determined and conditioned by orderly 
sequence ; that the laws which determine every event, 
no matter how mysterious, are ascertainable and 
thinkable, provided we have time, patience and wisdom 
enough to unravel them. The growth of science has 
been a growth of the recognition of law. A little while 
ago comets and meteors were the heralds of good or ill 
to man ; historical events were the sequence of juxta- 
position of planets or flight of birds ; sickness, mis- 
fortune and death were visitations of divine displeasure 
— and science under such conditions was impossible. 
Now, in the physical world, caprice and chance have 
been eliminated. All things follow an irresistible 
sequence of cause and effect. When a new and strange 
fact of nature occurs we are not satisfied to regard it as 
a stroke of magic or an arbitrary decree of Providence. 
If a new reaction appears in the test-tube, or we get 
evidence of the existence of X-rays, we ask immediately 
what new laws of nature are shown here ? How do 
these new phenomena fit into the old ? Law reigns 
everywhere. The meteorologist is even studying the 
wind, and with some degree of success is finding whence 
it comes and whither it goes. 



INTRODUCTION 3 

Nor do we limit our generalisation to the facts of 
the physical world, but assume that in the mental 
life also there are laws as dominant and unchange- 
able, although these are of different character and are 
peculiar to their own sphere. It has been one of the 
greatest triumphs of modern times to bring under 
investigation by empirical methods the processes of 
human consciousness. The student in the psycho- 
logical laboratory meets with as great orderliness and 
sequence among the facts of emotion or memory or 
reasoning as the physicist in his laboratory. Even the 
various types of insanity are usually traceable to natural 
causes, and recognisable as the result of exaggerated 
elements in the interplay of psychic forces, and not as 
manifestations of demoniacal possession, as was once 
commonly believed. It is scarcely questioned at the 
present time that all our mental processes follow an 
orderly sequence. We go one step further, and affirm 
that there is no event in the spiritual life which 
does not occur in accordance with immutable laws. 
The study of religion is to-day where astronomy and 
chemistry were four centuries ago. The world has been 
taken away from the oracle, alchemist, astrologer and 
petty gods, and given over to the control of law. 
Another four hundred years may restore to law the soul 
of man, with all its hopes, aspirations and yearnings. 

We shall be able more easily to put ourselves in the 
point of view of the psychology of religion by consider- 
ing briefly its relation to four other lines of human 
interest. 

1. Relation to Sociology and History. — There are two 
general lines of approach to an understanding of the 
growth of religion. We may study religion either in the 
race or in individuals. Our principal knowledge of its 
development up to the present has been through soci- 
ology and history, which give us glimpses of its beginnings 
and of the influences which have shaped its growth from 
the earliest times to the present. The raw material for 
these researches is found in the institutions and customs 



4 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

of peoples. Typical instances of such studies are Tylor's 
Primitive Culture and Spencer's Sociology. Especially 
should the article of Dr Daniels, 1 The New Life: A 
Study of Regeneration, be mentioned in this connection, 
as it deals from a sociological standpoint with the same 
topic which occupies Part I. of this volume. 

We may turn, however, to the study of the religious 
instinct in individuals, and discover there its roots and 
the law of sequence of its elements from childhood to 
maturity. This is the work of the psychology of re- 
ligion. The problem is the same, whether studied in 
the individual or the race ; the data in the two fields 
and the methods of interpretation are different. We 
may find at some time the same principles of growth in 
both — discover, as is often at present assumed, that the 
individual passes through the same stages of religious 
development as the race, or that the race is but a long- 
lived individual ; but that must be settled by scientific 
investigation, and not by philosophical speculation. 

2. Relation to Psychology. — The psychology of re- 
ligion and modern experimental psychology are closely 
related both in method and subject-matter. The 
method of both is inductive. In point of time one of 
them represents the next to the last step in the growth 
of empiricism ; the other, the last. In subjecting the 
facts of nature to scientific treatment, it was a long step 
in advance when, recently, it was recognised that every 
thought or volition or emotion, every expression of con- 
sciousness, is an index of some law of life ; and that the 
best way to understand the mental life is to view each 
of its manifestations as a fact of nature, and to study 
such expressions objectively. So marked has been the 
swing away from the rational, introspective stand- 
point, that no serious modern psychological work exists 
which does not at least* take into account laboratory 
experimentation. Still, there has been one reserve 
which has not, until lately, been entered by the well- 
established methods of science, namely, religion. It is 

1 Arthur Daniel, American Journal of Psychology, VI., No. I. 



INTRODUCTION 5 

an equally important step with that which marked 
the beginning of experimental psychology that now the 
whole range of human experience, including its most 
sacred realm, is thrown open to scientific investigation. 
We shall show in another connection that the psychology 
of religion employs the same methods as psychology 
proper, and shall make clear in the proper place that 
such means of approach are in the interest of the com- 
prehension and assimilation of that which is the centre 
and heart of life. 

These two departments of study are closely related, 
likewise, in subject-matter. There seems to be no 
reason longer to make a sharp distinction between those 
functionings of consciousness which may be termed 
religious, and those, on the other hand, which belong to 
the so-called mental life. Just as in psychology proper 
the artificial walls have been shattered which separate 
intellectual, emotional and volitional activities and all 
the ' faculties/ and we have come to look upon each 
activity in the light of the whole consciousness, so we 
are discovering that the religious and secular aspects of 
the soul-life constantly flow into each other, and that 
each helps in the interpretation of the other. We shall 
find that the data of religious experience are being 
illuminated at every point by the results of physiological 
psychology. The exact relation which we conceive to 
exist then between the psychology of religion and 
psychology proper will depend on how inclusive the 
definition of each becomes. If we should define religion 
broadly enough to include the whole of life, then the 
science of it becomes the whole of which psychology 
is a part ; but if we consider psychology as the science 
which discusses the laws of all the psychic function- 
ings whatever, and include within them reverence, de- 
pendence, worship, and the like, then the psychology of 
religion is a special branch of psychology. In a volume 
like this, which concerns itself very little with definitions, 
it makes little difference which branch of study swallows 
up the other. Only this should be clear, that the two 



6 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

spheres of investigation are not clearly separable, either 
in method or subject-matter. 

3. Relation to the Philosophy of Religion and Theology, 
— The psychology and the philosophy of religion have 
identical problems, but in this they differ widely, that 
they approach the problems in different ways. The 
philosophy of religion and theology insist on seeing 
things in wholes. They resort to introspection, intui- 
tion, rational analysis and definition. The psychology 
of religion sees in the scattered facts of religious experi- 
ence an evidence that spiritual forces are at work. It 
believes that by viewing these facts objectively and 
minutely they will constantly reflect new truth or new 
and larger aspects of the old. The one works at the 
finished end of knowledge, and is, to be sure, more 
artistic and self-contained ; the other, active, energetic, 
grovels among details, but at the same time has the 
larger faith, and hopes to come into the central life 
problems doubly enriched and illuminated. It is as if 
I wished to know more about a new and strange locality. 
I may sit at my tent door and reason out many things 
about it. I may infer many things truthfully in regard 
to the contour of the country from the nature of the air 
currents, much about the nature of the soil and vegeta- 
tion by watching what the stream carries past my door. 
Or I may set out and explore the locality, and gather 
information from a thousand sources, and let my know- 
ledge grow as the facts fall into numberless combina- 
tions and mutually interpret each other. Now, if my 
knowledge of the country is really to increase, both 
things are necessary — to gather the data and to in- 
terpret them. The facts in themselves are voiceless 
and helpless ; their value lies simply in what I 
bring to them of my own subjective life. Just as 
truly is my thought-life helpless unless it has the 
facts of experience to call it out and correct it. The 
business of the psychology of religion is to bring 
together a systematised body of evidence which shall 
make it possible to comprehend new regions in the 



INTRODUCTION 7 

spiritual life of man, and to read old dogmas in larger 
and fresher terms. 

The condition in our present era is as if, in exploring 
the land, there were a division of labour and one group 
of men busied themselves only in gathering data while 
another was concerned only with the interpretation of 
them, and as if one band, the scientists, had almost lost 
acquaintance with their co-workers, the philosophers. 
The gap between them has become so great that 
science often wanders aimlessly into new regions or 
amuses itself by counting grains of sand, and philosophy, 
on its part, sits at ease and withers under a sense of 
finality and sufficiency. Such a divorce, which is a 
relatively modern one, may be likewise a necessary and 
permanent one. It may be unavoidable, from the very 
nature of evolving consciousness that we must always 
turn to the objective aspect of experience and then from 
that to the subjective interpretation of it — in other 
words, science and metaphysics may always exist side 
by side ; but it will be a happy consummation if we 
come generally to recognise that each exists for the 
other. As surely as the theologian and philosopher 
become seized with a larger faith and push out into new 
regions, and the psychologist remains alive to the 
infinite significance of his facts, we shall have no breach 
between the philosophy of religion and theology, on the 
one hand, and the scientific study of religion, on the 
other. 

4. Relation to Religion. — Religion is a life, a deep- 
rooted instinct. It exists and continues to express itself 
whether we study it or not. Just as hunger and the 
desire for exercise still assert themselves whether or not 
one knows the conditions underlying them, so will one's 
spiritual nature function and seek objects for its ex- 
pression even if we are wholly ignorant intellectually of 
its nature. But it is in the interest of religion that it 
should not remain submerged in the sea of feeling, that 
in some degree it should be lifted up within the range 
of intellectual comprehension. Here is this life of the 



8 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

physical organism. It will continue to function, feed, 
grow and maintain its rights whether or not we under- 
stand its mechanism. Still we do not hesitate to say 
that its interests are better conserved if we comprehend 
the laws of its parts. The physician who goes through 
the body with scalpel and microscope does a service to 
the living human being who rejoices in his strength and 
pulsing life. Psychology is to religion what the science 
of medicine is to health, or what the study of botany is 
to the appreciation of plants. The relation is the same 
as that of any science to its corresponding art. It is 
art coming to comprehend itself for its own betterment. 
The development of the psychology of religion is 
another step in the growth of racial self-consciousness, 
which seems to be nature's way of self-improvement. 
Let us ask what religion may hope to gain by a study 
of its nature and laws. 

In the first place, psychology will contribute to religion 
by leading tozvard greater wisdom in religious education. 
There are in this country several thousand ministers 
who professedly devote their lives to the spiritual culture 
of those in their charge ; there are several million parents, 
whose highest desire is to meet wisely the moral and 
religious needs of their children at every step in their 
growth. There can be no doubt that the larger share of 
wisdom in such matters will come from the doing as our 
fathers have done, combined with a fine intuition, which 
feels its way into the life that is hungering for wisdom ; 
but it is each person's business to seek to add a little to 
the wisdom of the past. This can be done only through 
a more adequate comprehension of life by reading into it 
until its processes become transparent. I do not trust a 
physician to prescribe food or exercise to my child or to 
heal it, unless I fully trust his knowledge of its anatomy 
and physiology. During all those years when he is dis- 
secting human bodies, or studying circulation or nerve 
anatomy in the laboratory, he is storing up information 
and gaining such an insight as will safely bridge over some 
crisis in the life of his patient. The time is almost past 



INTRODUCTION 9 

when we entrust our children in school to a teacher who 
does not know something of psychology. It is a mere 
platitude to say that the skilled mechanic must know 
the laws of the stress of steel or the pressure of steam, 
that the electrician must understand the materials he 
is dealing with, that the teacher must share the know- 
ledge of the psychologist as to the laws of the conscious 
life. It will become likewise a commonplace to say that 
a religious teacher cannot stand between a hungering 
soul and its future self, or between men and God, who 
does not know something of the laws of spiritual evolu- 
tion, who does not know at every step something of 
where the life is, whither it is tending, and the means 
by which it is to attain its end. That the soul be no 
longer left to drift aimlessly and to select chance 
objects for its expression, or remain without an object, 
is partially to be the work of the psychology of religion. 
Psychology will contribute to religion also by increas- 
ing our power of appreciation of spiritual things. Re- 
ligion, in part, is, in the language of Professor Royce, 
concerned with the world of subjective ' appreciation/ 
or, as Dr Paulsen puts it, it deals with values. But 
the world of appreciation is never opened to him who 
has not found doors opening up into it. I may look 
upon flowers in a purely objective way, but if I find 
some road leading into the life of the plant, there is 
awakened a subjective response to it. To Peter Bell 

1 A primrose by the river's brim 
A yellow primrose was to him, 
And it was nothing more ' ; 

but when Peter Bell brought an awakened conscious- 
ness to the primrose it opened up its life to him. 
The botanist who knows most of the structure and 
growth of plants, provided he does not become 
buried in his technique, is the one who gets the fullest 
inkling, in contemplating the flower, of what ' God and 
man is.' Even if he loses himself for the time, he is 
turning out a body of knowledge which blazes a path 



io THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

by which those who follow him may enter a larger 
world of appreciation. He has made a worthy sacri- 
fice for the future. The painter who has seen farthest 
into the laws of colour-blending, massing and perspec- 
tive, is the one, other things being equal, whose feelings 
respond most warmly to a landscape, or who feels most 
intensely from within a great work of art. In the same 
way religion must be entered. Most of it will always 
remain below the threshold of clear ideas, in the sphere 
of feeling. But to lift it above superstition, to dwell 
vitally within it, to make it a sure, lasting, growing 
possession of mankind, it must have a thousand thought- 
paths leading into its holy of holies. The mystic or 
ardent religionist seeks to throw himself straight into 
the heart of truth. He can carry up into it, however, 
only such illumination as his mental life gives him 
power to apperceive. One would doubt that the ex- 
perience of a child of four, say, who shut his eyes to 
the world, and sank back into religious quietism, were 
rich in spiritual content. Science is willing to work 
and wait, even to turn its back on the larger outlook 
of truth in order to find it more largely. 

The feeling comes to many as if there were a 
hemming more and more closely of the range of that 
which escapes the artificial formulation of science, that 
the message of the poet and artist and religionist is 
threatened with extinction. Where is there room for 
Beauty, or for God, in a world whose parts are all 
labelled, and all of whose workings are understood ? 
Such a feeling grows out of a mistaken notion of what 
science can do. Science really gives a final explanation 
of nothing whatever. All it can do is to bring a little 
coherency and constancy into the midst of that which 
is constantly flowing, to explore a little into the ever- 
enlarging region of the unknown. In applying the 
methods of science to the study of religion, most of it 
will always remain out of our grasp. We shall have 
to content ourselves by working around the outskirts, 
making an inroad here and there, feeling our way 



INTRODUCTION n 

where clear paths fail, until we are able to say of 
the religious sense, as of every other field we try to 
explore, we understand it, because there are bits of it 
which satisfy the demands of our intelligence sufficiently 
to give the feel of knoiv ledge by producing steadfastness in 
our emotional attitudes. I say I understand the con- 
stitution of water, because I know it is composed of 
hydrogen and oxygen in certain proportions, and be- 
cause I know how it acts and how it is acted upon in 
its manifold relationships. But if I stop to question it, 
I know nothing of hydrogen and oxygen, nor of any 
one of the numerous properties of water, and in its 
ultimate analysis the fact of the existence of water is as 
great a mystery as that a soul should be turned from 
death unto life. The end of our study is not to resolve 
the mystery of religion, but to bring enough of it into 
orderliness that its facts may appeal to our under- 
standing. 

The Method. — The question arises, In what way is 
it possible to produce order in a field of consciousness 
as complex and organic as that of religion ? Is it pos- 
sible to analyse and organise the data so that the results 
may have some degree of scientific exactness, and, 
accordingly, furnish some solid ground on which to 
build ? The method will necessarily be determined by 
the problem in hand and the character of the data 
used. 

The present volume is an excursus into individual 
psychology, and represents only one of several aspects 
of the psychology of religion now being pursued. It is a 
purely empirical study into the Line of Growth in Re- 
ligion in individuals, and an inquiry into the causes and 
conditions which determine it. It begins with conver- 
sion, since that seems to show in a condensed form 
some of the essential features of religious development. 
Then follows a discussion of the line of growth follow- 
ing conversion. Part II. is a presentation of the line 
of growth where not marked by apparently sudden 
changes of character. The material for the study con- 



i2 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

sists largely of autobiographies written in response to 
a printed list of questions. The task before us is to 
take the varying records and find what are the common 
elements in them ; to get a composite picture of them ; 
to discover what are the larger aspects of religious 
evolution in masses of people, and to approach an 
insight into those laws of growth which, for the groups 
studied, seem natural and normal. 

The difficulties in the way of rendering such studies 
of scientific value are numerous and very great. Most 
persons have little power of introspection ; memory of 
past events is imperfect ; at best, the descriptions of sub- 
jective events are poor accounts of what has happened, 
or what now exists ; the personal equation of the student 
is certain to enter into the results; the difficulties of 
analysis where facts are so complex confront one — in 
short, one has all the difficulties which have to be over- 
come in the exacter sciences. They are precisely the 
same obstacles, no fewer and no more numerous, than 
those in other sciences, but in a more exaggerated 
form. Any value the following pages may have is the 
result, in part, of perfecting a method, after much loss 
of time, for giving massed results and at the same time 
reducing the sources of error in the organisation of 
the raw material. In order that the reader may 
the better grasp the meaning of the discussions 
which follow, and also judge of their scientific value, 
we shall consider briefly the various steps in the 
method pursued. 

I. In the material for the study, the printed question 
lists, so much in use since the early work of Darwin and 
Galton, were employed. The questions were framed so 
as to call out experiences of a certain general character, 
and, at the same time, to avoid, as far as possible, bias- 
sing the replies. So far did they meet that condition 
that rarely were the answers written categorically in 
reply to the special list of questions. The idea was 
that if the mind of the respondent were awakened along 
the desired line, what came forth spontaneously would 



INTRODUCTION 13 

be the most vital and essential elements of his experi- 
ence. Care was always taken to call out actual facts of 
experience, and not opinions about certain ideas or 
doctrines, on the ground that the interpretation of actual 
experiences would bring us nearer the operation of life- 
forces than a study of massed opinions. The attempt 
was made to have the material as representative as pos- 
sible in regard to sex, age, church connection and voca- 
tion. Of course, the questions were unavoidably selective 
in certain ways — for example, those responded more 
readily who were more favourably disposed towards the 
study of religion, and those also who had now, or at 
some time had had, an actively religious experience. In 
interpretating results, we are constantly to take into 
account the limits within which the inductions are 
valid. They are true of a specialised class, chiefly Pro- 
testant, American members of professedly Christian com- 
munities. They are not necessarily true for savages or 
statesmen or Catholics or persons living in a different 
historical epoch. We shall have constantly to correct 
our conclusions by studying separately more special 
classes in regard to church, vocation, etc., and to widen 
them by gathering data from new sources. It seemed 
best in mapping out a relatively unorganised field not 
to discriminate too closely the class of persons or nature 
of the experiences which were considered together. If 
we can get a few general bearings at first, it may guide 
us in future work. Since these studies were organised, 
the same methods have been carried out in several dif- 
ferent directions. 

2. The next step was the analysis of the records to 
be used. Many hours, and sometimes several days, 
were devoted to studying a single record, for the 
purpose of seeing each part of it in all its possible 
bearings, and in what seemed to be its true context. 
In case of meanings too obscure, or accounts too im- 
perfect, the respondent was plyed with further questions. 
The source of error from biassed interpretations is, at 
best, very great, and can be reduced only by other 

3 



i 4 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

persons analysing and interpreting the same or similai 
records. The purpose in this step was to arrive at the 
same insight into the growth of the religious life of 
each individual as if it were to be used alone as a 
study in the psychology of religion. 

3. But since the end in view is to find what principles 
in {he growth of religion are true for people in general, 
it was necessary to devise a plan by which the like and 
unlike elements in the different records could be brought 
into relation. The means finally employed was to use 
enormous specially -ruled charts, which were folded 
into books for convenience in handling. The charts 
were ruled horizontally, and also into vertical columns. 
Without any prepossessions, and without wanting to 
find any particular fact, the first case was scattered along 
horizontally through the chart. The second one was 
sown along in the same way, but care was taken to 
bring similar facts under each other. As the cases 
multiplied, they began to form vertical columns of like 
or contradictory facts. The columns fell gradually into 
groups of columns, and new ones were constantly form- 
ing. Several times the whole thing had to be started 
afresh to approximate the new groupings. Soon some- 
thing approaching a permament form was reached, but 
vacant columns were kept to catch new items. Each 
biography was thus re-written, except in cases where con- 
densations could be safely made. Apparently insigni- 
ficant events were preserved in the individual cases. 
These sometimes fell away as being really valueless, 
but frequently they proved common to many persons, 
and full of significance. The picture was thus constantly 
shifting, by one column dividing into two, two or three 
melting into one, old ones disappearing, and new ones 
forming. In each study there were finally about fifty 
vertical columns, each ready to supplement the others. 
The advantage of the charts lay in the fact that the 
individual cases were kept intact, and also that relations 
could readily be ascertained between the various columns. 
In many ways the use of the charts w^s found to assist 



INTRODUCTION 15 

in lessening the personal equation. By their help it 
was possible to view the facts of experience more objec- 
tively, and thus to allow them to speak for themselves. 
In this way, too, opinions and presuppositions were 
reduced to a minimum. 

4. After analysis and classification came general- 
isation. What do the records show when viewed 
collectively ? What are their common elements ? What 
the conditions determining their divergence?' What 
life-forces do they reflect? The massed results can 
be shown in part, by summarising the distinctive 
features and expressing them in percentages of all 
the cases, by comparisons of the columns and by 
quotations. This step is like making a composite 
picture from several individual ones, or like getting a 
bird's-eye view of a landscape. Experiences vary. 
In the comparative study, we come to understand the 
causes and conditions underlying their variation. In 
many respects they harmonise and reveal some of the 
larger tendencies in human development. The simi- 
larities and differences furnish larger insights into 
life than can come from individual experiences. Only 
by the study of many outcrops of rock is the geologist 
able to picture the strata beneath the surface. Human 
experiences are partial revelations of the infinite life. 
A collective view of the minute facts of personal life 
shows laws and processes and tendencies of growth, 
and deepens by a little our comprehension of the 
relgious consciousness. 

5. Lastly, the principles shown in the massed re- 
sults were interpreted in their larger bearings. There 
are two general lines of interpretation. The first is 
that anticipated in the last paragraph, which involves 
the explanation of one set of religious phenomena by 
another set in the same general group of data. It is 
concerned with setting forth the inter-relation of the 
facts within their own sphere. For example, can I 
explain the feelings which attend the critical moment 
of conversion as the direct consequence of those 



1 6 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

which precede ; or adolescent doubt as conditioned 
by certain aspects of childhood training ? The second 
line of interpretation asks what the facts mean as viewed 
in the light of other sciences — what relation do they 
bear to the facts set forth in sociology, history, biology, 
or psychology ? The inquiry then becomes, in regard 
to the feelings which attend conversion : Have they 
a possible explanation in the facts of the physiology 
of circulation, or in the psychology of temperament? 
And, in regard to adolescent doubt, I may raise the 
questi6n as to its connection with primitive social 
customs or the biological event of attaining physical 
maturity. Such interpretations are largely an individual 
matter, and depend upon what the student brings to 
the facts in hand. For the sociologist or historian 
or pathologist the same data will fill entirely different 
gaps in our knowledge. The interpretations in this 
volume are professedly chiefly on the psycho-physio- 
logical side. Provided the personal equation has 
not been too great in organising the religious ex- 
periences, the results will furnish material for other 
classes of students. 

To sum up our discussion : The psychology of 
religion is a purely inductive study into the phenomena 
of religion as shown in individual experience. It 
differs from the methods heretofore employed in 
viewing its facts more objectively. It is closely 
related to experimental psychology in historical 
development, subject-matter, and method. The end 
in view is not to classify and define the phenomena 
of religion, but to see into the laws and processes at 
work in the spiritual life. The fundamental assumption 
is that religion is a real fact of human experience, and 
develops according to law. Although these laws are 
peculiar to their own sphere, and need not harmonise 
readily with those of physics, chemistry, and the like, 
nevertheless, the facts have an order which, given wisdom 
enough, may be ascertained. The service of psychology to 
practical religion is to make possible a harvest of wiser 



INTRODUCTION 17 

means in moral and religious culture, and also to lift 
religion sufficiently out of the domain of feeling to 
make it appeal to the understanding, so that it may 
become possible, progressively, to appreciate its truth 
and apperceive its essential elements. 



PART I 

CONVERSION 



CHAPTER II 

SOURCES FOR THE STUDY OF CONVERSION 

THROUGHOUT Christianity, from the preaching of John 
the Baptist down to the modern i revival meeting/ a 
marked event in the spiritual life, commonly called 
' Conversion/ has been recognised. In the Greek, 
Roman Catholic, English, Lutheran, and some other 
Churches, it has a correspondence in * Confirmation/ 
Conversion is characterised by more or less sudden 
changes of character from evil to goodness, from sinful- 
ness to righteousness, and from indifference to spiritual 
insight and activity. The term Conversion is used in 
this study in a very general way to stand for the whole 
series of manifestations just preceding, accompanying, 
and immediately following the apparently sudden 
changes of character involved. Such a bungling use 
of this term and of others in the volume will be dis- 
appointing to those who demand nicety of definition. 
It is better, however, in exploring a relatively unor- 
ganised field, to avoid letting fineness of definition out- 
strip adequacy of knowledge. Our attempt shall be 
to get at the mental and spiritual processes at work 
during conversion, rather than to establish any doc- 
trines. We have before us a purely inductive investiga- 
tion, to take the bare records of this class of experiences, 
without a thesis to be proven or anything to guide us 
but the axioms of scientific criticism, to compare them, 
to derive what conclusions seem forthcoming, and to 
view these in the light of modern psychology. 

The raw material for our study consists principally 



22 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

in autobiographies written in response to personal solici- 
tation. Autobiographies in books were usually dis- 
appointing, and the plan of gathering them from that 
source was, for reasons which are readily seen, largely 
abandoned. For the most part, they are too meagre, 
and are given too objectively to be rich in psychological 
material ; many of them, especially those in old New 
England history, are written to produce a religious 
effect, so that the facts are doubtless out of perspective ; 
most of them are old, and represent corresponding 
events in human life, to be sure, but under different 
historical conditions. 1 It is important, furthermore, 
that the records, in order to be comparable, should be 
written under somewhat similar circumstances as regards 
questions, questioner and purpose. The attempt has 
been made to bring together data which are sufficiently 
homogeneous in point of time, place and circumstance 
fitly to lend themselves to comparative study. Two 
methods have been employed in securing the facts : one 
was to question and cross-question the respondent in 
person and record the evidence as it was given. Usually 
this plan was not feasible. The larger number of bio- 
graphies were secured by the other method, which was 
to obtain responses to the following list of questions: — 
* I. What religious customs did you observe in child- 
hood, and with what likes and dislikes? In what ways 
were you brought to a condition to need an awakening : 
— faulty teachings, bad associations, appetites, passions, 
etc.? What were the chief temptations of your youth? 
How were they felt, and how did you strive to resist ? 
What errors and struggles have you had with (a) lying 
and other dishonesty, (b) wrong appetites for foods and 
drinks, (c) vita sexualis ; what relation have you noticed 
between this and moral and religious experiences ? (d) 
laziness, selfishness, jealousy, etc. ? 

1 Three biographies, those of Whitefield, Fox and Peter Cartwright, had 
already been analysed when the importance came to mind of limiting the 
study to the present epoch. They are relatively modern, and they fell in 
line so naturally with the rest that they are included. 



SOURCES FOR THE STUDY OF CONVERSION 23 

' II. What force and motive led you to seek a higher 
and better life: — fears, regrets, remorse, conviction for 
sin, example of others, influence of friends and surround- 
ings, changes in belief or ideals, deliberate choice, 
external pressure, wish for approval of others, sense of 
duty, feeling of love, spontaneous awakening, divine 
impulse, etc. ? Which of these or other causes were 
most marked, and which were present at all? 

4 III. Circumstances and experiences preceding con- 
version : — any sense of depression, smothering, fainting, 
loss of sleep and appetite, pensiveness, occupation dis- 
turbed, feeling of helplessness, prayer, calling for aid, 
estrangement from God, etc.? How long did it con- 
tinue? Was there a tendency to resist conviction? 
How was it shown ? 

1 IV. How did relief come? Was it attended by 
unnatural sights, sounds, or feelings? In what did the 
change consist? — breaking pride, public confession, seek- 
ing the approval of others, feeling God's forgiveness, 
sudden awakening to some great truth, etc.? How 
sudden was the awakening? 

' Did the change come through, or in spite of, your 
own thought, deliberation and choice ? What part of it 
was supernatural or miraculous ? 

' V. Feelings and experiences after the crisis : — sense 
of bodily lightness, weeping, laughing, joy, sorrow, dis- 
appointment, signs of divine pleasure or displeasure, 
etc.? How differently did you feel towards persons, 
nature, ideas, God, etc. ? Did you have unfulfilled 
expectations or disappointments? 

' VI. What changes did you find that conversion had 
worked out in your life : — changes in health, habits, 
motives, conduct, and in your general intellectual and 
emotional attitude? Did you undertake any private 
religious acts, as Bible reading, meditation, acts of self- 
sacrifice, prayer, etc. ? 

'VII. Were there any relapses from the first experi- 
ence? Were they permanent or temporary? Any 
persistent doubts ? What difficulties from habits, pride, 



24 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

ridicule, or opposition of others, etc., had you, and what 
methods did you adopt? Do you still have struggles 
in your nature? Does that indicate that the change 
was not complete? How have you, and how will you, 
overcome them ? What needed helps, if any, were 
wanting at any time ? 

i VIII. Did you always find it easy to follow the new 
life, and to fit into its customs and requirements? If 
not, how did you succeed — by habit, pressure and en- 
couragement of friends, a new determination, a sudden 
fresh awakening, etc. ? 

1 IX. State a few bottom truths embodying your 
own deepest feelings. What would you now be and 
do if you realised all your own ideals of the higher 
life? 

* X. What texts, hymns, sermons, deaths, places and 
objects were connected with your deepest impressions ? 
If your awakening came in revival meeting, give the 
circumstances, and the methods used. What do you 
think of revivals ? 

'XL If you have passed through a series of beliefs 
and attitudes, mark out the stages of growth and what 
you feel now to be the trend of your life.' 

The effort was made that the replies should be not 
only fairly homogeneous, as indicated above, but also 
representative, i.e., that they should give a true picture of 
conversion in modern Christian communities. Accord- 
ingly, persons available were solicited without reference 
to profession, educational advantages, social standing or 
church connection. No special aspect of conversion was 
sought for. The more quiet and unemotional experi- 
ences were taken along with the sudden and violent. 
The only test was that the person believed that the 
event represented a real turning-point or the beginning 
of a new life. 

The number of cases finally brought together which 
were complete enough to use was 192. Of these 120 
were females and 72 males. 

The personnel of the respondents is as follows : — The 



SOURCES FOR THE STUDY OF CONVERSION 25 

church connection was not always given ; almost all, 
however, are Protestants, with the Methodists somewhat 
better represented than the other denominations. The 
rest were about equally divided among the Congrega- 
tional, Baptist, Presbyterian, Christian and Friend's 
Churches. At least 8 were Episcopalians. By far the 
majority were Americans. Besides these there were 12 
English, 3 Canadians, 3 Negroes, 2 Germans, 2 Japanese, 
and 1 Hawaian. The numbers were well distributed 
among the vocations, although ministers and the student 
class were slightly in excess, as they were more access- 
ible. In short, we may say, whatever conception of 
conversion we arrive at in our study will apply especially 
to Protestants of America, and the question will remain 
an open one whether the phenomenon is the same under 
other circumstances and among other peoples. 

In regard to the environment under which conversion 
occurred, only one-half of the females and one-third of 
the males were immediately in connection with revival 
influences ; in a few of the cases the real change took 
place at home after attending revival, and may be 
regarded as under the direct influence of evangelical 
surroundings; a small number of males and about one- 
fourth of the females were converted at regular church 
service or prayer meeting or confirmation ; about 
one-fifth of the entire number of conversions (more 
frequently those of the males) have taken place inde- 
pendently of any immediate external influence. This 
last fact seems to show that conversion is a phenomenon 
natural to religious growth. 

The number of cases used in Chapter 1 1 1, in studying 
the age of conversion is 1265, of whom 254 were females, 
and ion males. When interesting features in regard to 
the age distribution of conversions began to appear, and 
also some connections between the spiritual events and 
certain physiological changes, the following question 
list was sent out, in order to determine whether the 
correspondences were accidental or indicative of some 
law ;— 



25 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

(i) Age of conversion 

(2) Age of most rapid bodily growth 

(3) Age of accession to puberty 

(4) Health— 

(a) Before conversion . 

(b) At time of conversion 

(c) After conversion 

(5) Conversion occurred at — 

(a) Camp meeting 

(b) Revival 

(c) Regular church service 

(d) At home or alone 

(6) Was the effect permanent 

(7) If there was a relapse — 

(a) How soon after conversion 

(b How long did it continue 

(8) Present age 

(9) Sex 

(10) Church 

(11) Vocation 

(12) Nationality 

(13) Resident of what State 

Several precautions were taken that the statistics 
should be fair, i.e., that they should represent various 
vocations, churches and localities. The ideal conditions 
for such a study, of course, would be to find a perfectly 
representative county, city or locality, and study all the 
persons in it. Something approaching such conditions, 
in this particular instance, was found in cases of both 
sexes. The question lists were distributed at two con- 
ventions (in California) of the Woman's Christian Tem- 
perance Union, and the persons present were asked to 
fill them out before leaving the room, and to indicate in 
each instance whether the answers were exact or only 
approximate. The replies were practically indifferent 
as to church connection, although the Methodists were 
somewhat in preponderance. For records from males, 
two regiments of soldiers, the Iowa and Tennessee, 



SOURCES FOR THE STUDY OF CONVERSION 27 

stationed in San Francisco, were canvassed. With the 
assistance of the officers, the boys were taken tent by 
tent, and were cross-questioned to determine the 
accuracy of their memory of the dates asked for. The 
canvass was continued until it appeared, from separating 
the replies into groups, so that each group might be a 
check on the others, that they were all going one way. 
A few records were gathered at a Methodist conference 
at Santa Barbara, Cal. The majority of the records of 
the mere age of conversions of males, 776 cases, were 
obtained from the Alumni record of the Drew Theo- 
logical Seminary (Methodist). The statistics from 
Methodists are used separately where the conditions 
demand it 



CHAPTER III 

THE AGE OF CONVERSION 

CONVERSION does not occur with the same frequency at all 
periods in life. It belongs almost exclusively to the years 
between 10 and 25. The number of instances outside that 
range appear few and scattered. That is, conversion is a 
distinctively adolescent phenomenon. It is a singular fact 
also that within this period the conversions do not dis- 
tribute themselves equally among the years. In the 
rough, we may say they begin to occur at 7 or 8 years, 
and increase in number gradually to 10 or 11, and then 
rapidly to 16 ; rapidly decline to 20, and gradually fall 
away after that, and become rare after 30. One may 
say that if conversion has not occurred before 20, the 
chances are small that it will ever be experienced. 

But our reading is yet too rough. Within adolescence 
it appears that such awakenings are much more likely 
to take place at some years than at others, and that the 
preference of years varies greatly with sex. The event 
comes earlier in general among the females than among 
the males, most frequently at 13 and 16. Among the 
males it occurs most often at 17, and immediately before 
and after that year. 

It will facilitate our understanding of the law of 
distribution of conversions if we represent graphically 
the frequency in different years. This is shown in 
Figure 1. 

In the figure, distance to the right shows increase in 
age, and distance upward represents the number of con- 
versions which occur in each year. The point that 

28 



THE AGE OF CONVERSION 



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3o THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

interests us is the variation in the curves. Since nearly 
all the respondents were above 20 years of age at 
the time of making the record, the probability is the 
same that a given conversion would fall in any year up 
to 20. If all the cases followed the law of prob- 
ability, the curve would then be a straight line parallel 
to the base. But the dice seem to be loaded ; that is, 
there seem to be determining elements that make the 
numbers accumulate in certain years. The value of the 
curves, consequently, lies in their irregularity. 

The number of cases plotted in the figure is 254 
females and 235 males. This is the number which may 
be regarded as fairly representative in regard to 
denomination. It omits from the 1265 cases the J76 
male Methodists of the Drew Theological Alumni. In 
order that the curves for females and males might be 
compared with each other and, at the same time, 
preserve their peculiarities, they were both reduced to 
the same scale, for which the basis of 300 was arbitrarily 
chosen. 

There are certain peculiarities of the curves which 
deserve especial attention. Curve F. for females 
virtually begins at 10 and rises suddenly and rapidly to 
13, falls abruptly to 15, culminates at 16, at which year 
alone occur 40 of the 300 cases ; there is a drop again 
at 17, a rise at 18, and then a gradual decline into the 
2o's. The three peaks at 13, 16 and 18 are worthy of 
notice. Curve M., for males, really begins at 9 ; it rises 
irregularly to 12, drops at I3,rises 4r suddenly to 16, where 
it culminates, falls slowly to 19, and then rapidly into 
the 20's. There are here, also, three peaks, at 12, 16 
and 19. 

In comparing the two curves we should notice that 
the centre of gravity of F. is earlier than that of M. ; 
that each has three peaks ; that the first and third 
peaks contradict each other in the two curves, i.e., if we 
turn one curve on the 16 year line as an axis it will 
practically coincide with the other, although it should 
be noticed that the enlargement at 13 is larger than the 



THE AGE OF CONVERSION 31 

middle peak in curve F. It will become evident later 
that the main features of the curves are, perhaps, more 
than accidental. 

Now, if we plot the curve for the 7 76 cases of conver- 
sion from the Drew Theological Alumni record, we 
shall have another approximation of the law of distri- 
bution of conversions for males. Curve M.E. in Figure 
2 is the curve their ages form. It is based on enough 
cases to make it good for Methodist theological students. 
It may not be entirely representative of the sex, as it is 
the record of persons presumably of a specific kind of 
early training, and also of persons afterwards theologically 
inclined. The youngest graduates from the seminary were 
20 years of age ; only a very few were below 25 ; nearly 
all were between 25 and 40, with the prevailing age 
centering about 30. The probability is the same 
that a given conversion should occur in any year 
up to 20, so that the curve is reliable up to that 
year, and pretty good as far as it goes. For the 
purpose of comparing this with the more general group 
of males, curve M. of Figure 1 is reduced to the same scale 
as that of M.E., 800 being chosen as the common basis, 
and is shown in m. of Figure 2. We see at a glance that 
the two curves have considerable likeness. They both 
have three bulges at 12 and 16, and a later year — the 
third bulge in M.E. is later than that in m., and the one 
at 12 is more prominent with the Methodists. The 
average age of the two groups happens to be exactly 
the same, 16.4 years. The larger number at 12 in M.E. 
offset the later ones in the third enlargement. I am 
inclined to think now, in revising and re-writing the 
study, that both features are to be explained by the 
same circumstance, namely, the greater tendency of the 
Methodists to look on conversion as a definite and 
necessary step in religious growth. The ideal meets a 
readier response, perhaps, in the earlier impressionable 
years, and a postponement in the later years until it 
can be fully realised. Although M.E. represents a 
special group of persons, it furnishes the valuable 



32 



THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 



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THE AGE OF CONVERSION 



33 



suggestion that the peculiarities of the general curve 
for males are not due to chance. 

Before looking for the causes underlying the variations 
in the curves, let us assure ourselves still further,if possible, 
that the irregularities are not accidental. We may do this 
by separating all the cases into various groups, as deter- 
mined by the character of the respondents, or the cir- 
cumstances under which the statistics were gathered, 
and seeing what the groups separately show. In so far 
as there is uniformity in the various groups which 
compose the general curves, the evidence is heightened 
that their character is determined by certain laws of 
growth, and not by chance coincidences. In Table I. 
the cases are thrown into the several indicated groups. 
The rows of figures show the number of conversions in 
the various groups occurring each year, from 9 to 25 
inclusive. The larger numbers in each group are in bold 
type to assist the eye in gathering up the general 
significance of the figures. It is evident at a glance 
that there is remarkable similarity in the different 







Age- 


" 9 


to 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 


19 20 


21 


22 


2 3 


24 25 




Groups of Cases. 


















■ 1. 


From old Study * . 


1 


4 11 16 16 9 3 15 5 2 


1 
















2. 


From W.C.T.U.'s. 


3 


5 6 7 13 9 12 16 7 10 


6 10 


1" 











oi 


3. 


FromM.E.'s . 


1 


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2 6 


3 


2 





2 3 


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Other churches 


3 


488999 16 48 


6 5 


1 





1 


2 2 


5. 


Revival cases . 


3 


3 7 10 7 3 1 11 1 1 


1 


2 











6. 


Not revival 





155672455 


2 


1 


1 


1 


1 




■ 7- 


Total Females 


5 


7 20 26 31 25 17 34 15 21 


10 11 


6 


3 


1 


4 5 


[ 


8. 


From old study 


1 


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5 1 














1 


9- 


Amer. soldiers 





3 2 6 3 8 14 18 16 15 


9 6 


6 


4 


2 


3 4 


1 


10. 


DrewTheol. M.E.'s . 


14 


19 30 51 45 64 60 89 88 72 


56 48 


39 


25 


16 


8 7 


•1 j 


11. 


Other Meth.'s 


1 


5 2 2 5 9 12 17 10 11 


5 4 


7 


1 


2 


1 3 


i 


12. 


Other churches 





5 7 2 5 9 12 14 10 


10 5 


1 


4 


2 


2 1 




13. 


Revival cases 


1 


1 6 6 6 9 14 18 13 13 


8 3 


6 


3 


1 


3 3 




14. 


Not revival . 





203169556 


9 4 


3 


1 


3 


1 


» 


15- 


Total Males . 


15 27 38 64 56 85 89 121 114 45 77 58 


47 


3i 


23 


11 12 






Age- 


" 9 


10 11 12 13 14 15 16 77 18 


19 20 


21 


22 


23 24 25 



Table I. — Showing the nu?nber of conversions which occur each year in 
several groups of persons. 



34 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

groups. With only one exception the female groups 
show the two peaks at about 13 and 16, and that one 
instance is hardly an exception. There is some evidence, 
also, of the third rise in the curves. The harmony in 
the groups of males is no less striking. There is one 
bare exception to the culmination of the curves at about 
16; there is generally a rise at about 12, and some 
indication of a third rise at 18 or 19. We may safely 
lay it down as a law, then, that among the females there 
are two tidal waves of religious awakening at about 1 3 
and 16, followed by a less significant period at 18 ; while 
among the males the great wave is at about 16, preceded 
by a wavelet at 12, and followed by a surging up at 18 
or 19. 1 The slight variations from this rule may be 
accidental, or may be due in some instances to condi- 
tions which are determinable. It is of interest to notice 
that among females the larger number of revival con- 
versions come earlier than those not at revival, preceding 
them on an average by 1.9 years. There is a corre- 
sponding difference of .5 years among males. This may 
be due to the hastening influence of revival methods. 
Among the males, also, there is a singular relation 
between groups 11 and 12. The numbers for conversions 
among other churches than Methodists are nearly the 
same numbers as for Methodists, except that they fall 
one year later. It is doubtless a chance occurrence 
that so many of the numbers are exactly the same, but 
the general sequence is significant. 

In seeking the conditions which determine the distri- 
bution of conversions, we shall consider them under two 
general heads, viz., psychological reasons, and physio- 
logical reasons. 

I. Psychological reasons, — If we ask, in the first place, 
why conversions are confined almost wholly to the years 
between 9 or 10 and 20, we find an answer in the nature 
of mental development why it should not fall far beyond 
these limits. The child of very early years is impres- 

1 * A Study of Conversion ' — American Journal of Psychology, Jan. 
1897, p. 272. 



THE AGE OF CONVERSION 35 

sionable, to be sure, but before it can attain spiritual 
insight it must have a certain degree of mental grasp, 
some capacity to see in abstract terms, and an ability to 
feel deeply. The years at which conversions really 
begin (9 or 10 for boys and 11 for girls) coincide fairly 
with the years at which Dr Hancock 1 in his experi- 
mental tests found a sudden increment in children > s 
ability to reason. After this the reasoning power 
develops rapidly but intermittently on into the teens. 
Mr J. W. Davids 2 reports, as the result of experiments 
on the contents of children's minds, an increment in the 
mental life at about II. Although the same mental 
processes are not involved in reasoning and in religious 
awakenings, Dr Hancock's tests probably indicate a 
mental capacity which is a necessary condition for 
attaining spiritual insight. The point with which we 
are here concerned is that they, together with other 
tests which we shall notice, help to mark off a somewhat 
natural prior limit of conversions. 

In regard to the later limit, we must be sure first 
that the relative absence of conversions after 20 is 
not due simply to the fact that the respondents were 
young, and that so the possibility was cut off of the 
numbers falling later. If we take only the females and 
select those over 40 at the time of making the record, 
we shall have a reliable curve up to that year. There 
are 122 cases over 40. Of these 105 were converted 
between 5 and 23, and only 17 between 23 and 40. 
After youth is passed, the person is supposed to have 
a point of view of his or her own. One's habits of 
thought and activity are more firmly set. There is 
less susceptibility to new impressions. There may 
be just as great receptivity, but new things are seen 
in terms of the old. An entirely new revelation, or 
sudden change of character, becomes relatively more 
and more impossible. That is, there is a normal period^ 

1 John Hancock, 'Children's Ability to Reason,' Educational Review, 
Oct. 1896. 

2 Internat. Cong, fiir Psychologies Munich, 1896, p. 449 ct seq. 



36 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

somewhere between the innocence of childhood and the 
fixed habits of maturity, while the person is yet impres- 
sionable and has already capacity for sph'itual insight \ 
zv hen conversions most frequently occur. 

Some of the results of experiments and tests on 
children help us to understand the variations in the 
curves. In connection with the rise in the curve for 
males at 12 may be cited the research of Dr Lindley 1 
on the puzzle-interest of children. This interest 
culminates sharply at 12 years, and declines rapidly 
after that. In her study of the historic sense among 
children, Mrs Mary Sheldon Barnes 2 finds that the 
ability of boys to make proper inferences from an 
historical incident increases rapidly at 12, falls at 13, 
and rises again at 14, thus following very closely the 
variations in the curves before us. A research, as yet 
unpublished, by two of my students, on children's 
ability to make an abstract interpretation of a picture 
after seeing it for a short interval, shows likewise for 
boys a definite improvement at 12, another still greater 
at 14, but a decided falling off at 13. Expressed graphic- 
ally, the three curves — proper inference, abstract inter- 
pretation and conversion — run nearly exactly parallel 
from 11 to 15. The peculiarities of the conversion 
curve thus appear to be more than a chance occurrence, 
and to correspond to nascent periods and periods of 
retardation in mental ability. 

The fact that the first peak in the curve for girls is 
heavier than that for boys is explained in part, perhaps, 
by the greater precocity of the former. There is usually 
a difference of about two years recognised in the maturity 
of the two sexes at this age. 3 

1 Dr E. II. Lindley, 'A study of Puzzles,' American Journal of Psy- 
chology, July 1896. 

2 Mary Sheldon Barnes, * Studies in Historical Method,' Boston, 1896, 
p. 68. 

3 Chas. Roberts makes the difference in physical maturity even greater 
than two years. According to his estimation, based on the work of Bow- 
ditch, Chad wick and himself, i_2j_years in females corresponds to 1 6 in 
males. 'Physical Maturity of Women,' Lancet, London, July 25, 1885. 



THE AGE OF CONVERSION 37 

This same process of development, begun at 12 and 
13, is intensified a little later, during the early years of 
adolescence, at the time of the principal peaks in the 
curves. In his experiments on school children Dr 
Gilbert 1 finds the great period of sense development 
to be during the years from early childhood up to 10 or 
12 ; but after that, the sensory elements in consciousness, 
the eye, the ear, muscle-sense, etc., are relatively at a 
standstill in their development, and in some instances 
actually fall off in early adolescence. On the other hand, 
he finds that the time needed for making a mental dis- 
crimination—a more distinctly psychic act — improves 
during these same years. Memory for the length of a 
tone and the force of suggestion are relatively large at 
14 — the period of decline in the conversion curves — 
and fall away decidedly at 16, which indicates, perhaps, 
that at this later time life is turning away from sensation 
and is developing rapidly on the subjective side. The 
fact that there is a break at about 14 in school life 
between the grammar and high schools is a crystallised 
recognition that children are entering on a new phase of 
life, which is seen, in view of the new studies taken up 
in the high school, to be marked by the birth of rational 
insight and the power of aesthestic appreciation. The 
first two rises in the curves for conversion seem then, from 
the psychological standpoint, to correspond to the decline of 
the sensory elements in consciousness, and the birth of 
rational insighU — — - 

II. Physiological Reasons. — It has long been recog- 
nised that the beginning of adolescence is a period of 
rapid physiological transformations. The voice changes, 
the beard sprouts, the proportions of the head are 
altered, the volume of the heart increases, that of the 
arteries diminishes, the blood pressure is heightened, 
and central among the changes are those in the repro- 
ductive system, which make the child into the man 

1 Dr J. A. Gilbert, Studies from the Yale Psychological Laboratory, 
Vol. I., p. 80, and Vol. II., p. 40. 



38 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

or woman. 1 The amount of carbonic acid in the breath 
is greatly increased at this period, showing the increment 
in the processes which tear down and build up the 
system. Both boys and girls increase faster in height 
and weight than at any other time in life. These 
marked transformations come within the same general 
period as most frequent conversions. We shall inquire 
what is the probable relation between them. 

If we turn to the results of measurements of the 
height and weight of children, we find a close connection 
between these two aspects of growth and the heaviest 
peaks in the conversion curves — those at 13 for females 
and 16 for males. In Figure 3 are shown the curves for 
the average American boy and girl, adapted from Dr 
Burk's 2 summary of all the American statistics up to 
date. Girls increase in weight rapidly from 10 or 1 1 up 
to 13, after which the acceleration diminishes. The 
acceleration and decline in the curve for height are at 
the same years. If we compare this weight-curve with 
Figure 1, we find curve F. in both figures to coincide 
almost exactly from 9 to 15. The similarity is great 
enough to suggest some mutual dependence. The boys 
have a sudden acceleration in both weight and height at 
10, which is the year when conversions really begin. 
The rapid increase in weight from 13 to 16 and the 
decline after that are again strikingly similar in the 
curve for boys in both figures. The two enlargements 
at 13 and 16 in the conversion curves, which correspond 
to increments in bodily growth, are the bulkiest parts of 
the curves. The similarities suggest the law which we 
shall hold tentatively that during the period of most rapid 
bodily growth is the time when conversion is most likely to 
occur. These two phenomena are probably not causally 
connected in any way. A possible explanation of the 

1 For a fuller discussion of the physiological changes in adolescence, see 
Dr G. Stanley Hall, ' The Training of Children and Adolescents,' Dr 
Burnham, * The Study of Adolescence,' both in The Pedagogical Seminary 
for June 1891 ; and Dr Leon Bierent, La Puberty Paris, 1896. 

2 * Growth of Children in Height and Weight,' by Frederick Burk, 
American Journal of Psychology ', A pril, 1 898. 



THE AGE OF CONVERSION 



39 



correspondence we shall hold in reserve. There yet 
remain the other two peaks in each of the conversion 
curves, which must be explained, if at all, by other facts. 



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YEARS 6 7 8 9 10 

Figure 3.— Curves for height and weight of average American boys and 
girls. B = Boys, G = Girls. The column of figures on the left repre- 
sents either pounds or inches of absolute yearly increase according 
as it is applied to the upper or lower pair of curves. 

Let us inquire, in the next place, if there is some 
ascertainable relation between accession to puberty and 
the age of conversions. There are as yet few data on 
the age of puberty in males. The normal age, as usually 



4 o THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

given in medical literature, is about two years later than 
that for females. There are ample statistics for the age 
of puberty among females. It differs much according 
to climate and social condition. Selecting the data 
from Americans, as most applicable to the problem in 
hand, we have among 575 cases reported by Roberts, 1 the 
average age, as determined by the first menses, 14.8 ; 
the year of greatest frequency is 14. The cases are dis- 
tributed from 10 to 20 years inclusive, according to the 
following series : — 1, 5, 9, 18, 25, 20, 14, 3, 3, 1, 1. Dr 
Helen Kennedy reports 125 cases of American girls 
among whom the average age of puberty is 13.7 years. 
These two groups are perhaps fairly representee. If 
they are typical, they suggest that the ages of most 
frequent conversions, viz., 1 3 and 16, come just before and 
just after the year of most frequent accession to puberty. 
When some such connection began to be suggested for 
females, I went to work with the small question list on 
page 26, in order to discover what the relation is in the 
same persons between conversion, puberty and most rapid 
bodily growth. The respondents were asked to mark 
all ages ' approximate ' if they had not some clue by 
which they were fairly certain of the dates. The 
doubtful ones are omitted in the following comparisons. 
There were finally brought together 119 cases of 
females and 96 of males, in which the persons reported 
the ages of both conversion and puberty. The dis- 
tribution according to years is shown in Table II. 

Age — 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 

g I Conversions .3 3 6 8 16 9 12 15 ^ 8 10 7 9 1 



S 



2 



£ I Puberty .1 1 792739226520000 

^ J Conversions . o 3 4 6 5 6 11 12 16 13 5 6 4 4 
^ I Puberty .0 o o 3 11 23 17 9 11 15 1 3 3 o 

Table II. — Showing the relation between the years of greatest frequency 
of conversion and puberty in both sexes. {A few scattered conver- 
sions are omitted befo7-e 9 and after 22. ) 

1 S. S. Ilerrick, Reference Handbook of Medical Science, Vol. VI., p. 
70. * Physical Maturity of Women,' Lancet, London, July 25, 1885. 



THE AGE OF CONVERSION 41 

Among the females the years of greatest frequency of 
conversions are, as in the other groups of cases, 13 and 
16, while accession to puberty is most frequent at an 
intervening year, 14. Among males the number of con- 
versions culminates at 17, while that of accessions to 
puberty culminates at 14, and, singularly, thickens up 
again at 18, the year following the greatest number of 
conversions. That is, we have the interesting result 
that conversion and puberty tend to supplement each other 
in time y rather than to coincide ; in this, bearing just the 
opposite relation to that of conversion and bodily 
growth. Although the number of cases is small, there 
were several checks on the reliability of the conclusions. 
In the first place, the distribution of the conversion 
cases is very similar to that shown in the general curves 
of Figure 1. In the second place, the average age of 
puberty in these females is 13.8, and the year of greatest 
frequency is 14 ; and this coincides with other sets of 
statistics on puberty. Again, the females were separated 
into three groups as determined by three different 
sources of statistics, and each of the groups showed the 
supplemental relation of puberty and conversion. The 
statistics from the two regiments of soldiers were kept 
separate, and both showed the same results, except that 
the marked increase in the number of accessions to 
puberty at 18 was not so noticeable among the Iowa 
boys as among those from Tennessee* The results are 
practically identical, likewise, if we include the number 
of instances in which the years were marked ' approxi- 
mate.' On the whole, the law expressed above seems 
entirely reliable. 1 

1 In view of the fact that this result contradicts the law expressed in 
the article on Conversion published in the American Journal of Psychology 
for Jan. 1897, p. 273, a word should be said as to the reason for the differ- 
ence. At that time there were almost no published statistics on puberty in 
males, and the medical journals apparently put the year too late. Again, 
the error then came from the necessity of using averages in determining the 
relation of puberty and conversion, instead of years of greatest frequency, 
which is more accurate. Averages show certain great tendencies, but they 
blur the finer results. For example, if we average the female conversions 
at 13 and 16, the years of greatest frequency, we drag down the two peaks 



42 



THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 



If we turn from the question of the years of greatest 
frequency of conversion, puberty and bodily growth to 
a consideration of their relation in individual instances^ 
we get a further glimpse into the operation of the law 
we have just noticed. In the same individual, as well 
as in groups of individuals, conversion and puberty 
tend to come at different years. It is also true that, 
although conversion and bodily growth tend to coincide 
in their years of greatest frequency, still, within this 
general range of years, there is a tendency in the same 
person for conversion to dodge the years of most rapid 
physical development. This is shown in Tables III. 
and IV. following. We see that the number of instances 





Conversion 
before Puberty. 


Conversion 
same Year. 


Conversion 
after Puberty. 


Females (No. of Cases) 
Males (do.) 


28 
29 


16 

9 


6l 

54 



Table III. — Showing the relation in time between conversion and 
puberty. (Doubtful cases and those differing in the two events by 
more than 6 years omitted.) 

is small, 16 females and 9 males, in which conversion 
comes the same year as puberty. This is not so strik- 
ing in view of the large number of chances that they 



Females 
Males . 



Conversion before 
Rapid Growth. 



32 

39 



Conversion same 
Year. 



16 
20 



Conversion after 
Rapid Growth. 



41 
50 



Table IV. — Showing the relation in ti?ne between cotiversion and most 
rapid bodily growth in individual instances. (Doubtful cases 
and those which differ greatly in time omitted.) 

into the chasm between them, which is the point at which conversion is 
relatively least likely to occur. It is interesting to note that now, too, with 
ampler statistics, the averages for conversion and puberty come close to- 
gether. The average age of conversion is 14.8 and 16.4 years for females 
and males respectively, while the average age of puberty is 13.8 years for 
females and 15.6 for males. 



THE AGE OF CONVERSION 43 

should come in different years. But the case is stronger 
in Table IV., when we consider that most rapid bodily 
growth was generally given as extending over a number 
of years, and the chances were much greater that 
conversion would fall within this given range. Still 
we find only 16 cases of females and 20 of males in 
which the two events coincide. It should be borne 
in mind that the respondents would naturally be less 
accurate in recalling the age of most rapid bodily 
growth than the more definite events of conversion 
and puberty. We have one check, however, on the 
accuracy of the statistics : the average of the mean 
of the different records gives 16.1 years as the average 
year of most rapid bodily growth, and this coincides 
almost perfectly with the facts set forth in Figure 3. 
It is impossible to summarise in any simple way the 
statistics on the connections among the three sets 
of phenomena in question. By glancing through 
the columns of figures, one is impressed by the 
persistence with which the three events fall into a 
sequential rather than a simultaneous arrangement. 
They strongly suggest a more general statement of the 
law we have noticed in regard to the relation of con- 
version and puberty, viz., that the spiritual and physical 
aspects of development in individual instances tend to 
supplement each other. 

But we cannot say that because conversion usually 
precedes or follows puberty, rather than coincides with 
it, the two events are not vitally connected. In the 
first place, we have judged puberty by only two of 
its manifestations, menstruation in females and the 
ability of the reproductive system to function in males. 
These are only two of its various manifestations. 1 Dr 
Bierent 2 divides puberty into three stages — the pre- 
monitory stage, puberty itself, and the succeeding stage 

1 ' In infantile cases ' (of puberty) ' the attention of the mother is first 
attracted by the womanly development of the child before there is any 
appearance of the menses,' R. P. Harris, American Journal of Ods/e/rus, 
1870-71. 

2 La Ptibertiy p. 27 et sea. 



44 



THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 



— the last following by a year or so. Some aspect of 
pubescence may conceivably underlie the whole series 
of changes during adolescence. Even if we choose 
the one aspect of it for each sex, viz., the one on which 
our statistics are based, we find a far-reaching sug- 
gestion growing out of an analysis of the individual 
records. If we arrange the conversions in groups ac- 
cording as they came the same year as puberty, one to 
six years earlier, or one to six years later, we have the 
series shown in Table V. If the two events were so 
related that one is conditioned by the other, we should 
say, at first thought, that the larger numbers in both 
series ought to fall in the column marked the ' same 
year/ and gradually thin out towards the ends of the 
series. This would be the arrangement if the two 





Conversion Earlier 
than Puberty. 


Same 
Year. 


Conversion Later than 
Puberty. 


Years earlier or 
later • 


6 5 4 3 2 I 


O 


I23456 


Females • 
Males . • 


3 i 6 8 10 
006479 


16 
9 


14 11 13 10 5 8 
16 16 10 37 2 



Table V. — Showing by how much conversion precedes or follows puberty, 
(Conversions occurring later than 25 years> and differences exceeding 
6 years omitted. ) 

phenomena were causally related, but conversions were 
made to come earlier or later than puberty through 
accidental influences in the individual's surroundings. 
Although this arrangement does not obtain, we may 
select a point in each series a little after the 'same 
year/ which is not only the highest point in the series, 
but on each side of which the numbers gradually de- 
crease. These points would be about one-half year 
later than the theoretical point of coincidence in the 
series for females, and about one and one-half years 
later in that for males. The distribution on each side 



THE AGE OF CONVERSION 45 

of the two points selected is much as it would be if 
they were predestined to fall at those points, but were 
scattered by six years on either side through acci- 
dental influences. In other words, the distribution 
is much as if conversion were conditioned by puberty, 
but normally followed it by a year or so, and were 
free to diverge from it through the action of environ- 
mental influences. Consequently our law, as stated 
previously, in regard to the relation of these two phe- 
nomena, demands revision. We say now, conversion 
and puberty tend to supplement each other in time rather 
than to coincide ; but they may, nevertheless, be mutually 
conditioned. The significance of this law we shall leave 
until we have the facts of conversion before us. 

The Third Rise in the Curves. — If the principle 
stated heretofore is true in regard to the supplemental 
nature of the physical and spiritual aspects of growth, 
there may be contained in it a partial explanation of 
the other rises in the conversion curves. In comparing 
the curves of Figures 1 and 3, it will be noticed that 
the increment in the conversion curve for males at 12 
comes at a relatively dead period in physical growth, 
between the two accelerations at 10 and 16. Indeed, 
the question arises whether we have not here one 
explanation of the third rise in the conversion curves. 
The greatest number of conversions comes in the same 
general period with the rapid bodily transformations. 
It may be that after there is a lull on the physical side 
the life forces begin to expend themselves more in- 
tensely in producing psychic results. This seems to 
accord with what we know of growth in general, that 
in building an organism Nature is now at work on one 
part and now on another ; that there is about so much 
energy to be expended, and when it is going to the 
development of one part, this is done at the expense of 
the rest. 1 The third rise in the curves, then, may in- 

1 Donaldson's Growth of the Brai?i, p. 69. Burk, * Growth of 
Children in Height and Weight/ American Journal of Psychology, April 
1898, p. 302. 



46 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

dicate a definite step in spiritual progress zvhich accompanies 
intellectual maturity. An analysis of the cases before 
us will show that in the conversions which occur at 
the very beginning of adolescence there is more of an 
emotional disturbance, while the later cases seem to be 
more mature and to contain more of the element of 
insight. 

There are, doubtless, many factors in the explana- 
tion of any of the phenomena of conversion. The cases 
themselves suggest other causes than the one already 
given. A few of them mention an impulse to conver- 
sion at about the beginning of adolescence, which then 
dropped out of their thought and was revived later. 
The following are typical : — 

F., 1 1 6. ( When 12 I had an impulse to go to the 
altar with two girl friends, but something kept me back. 
When 16, in a little meeting, I felt serious. My friend 
near me wanted me to go to the altar, and I thought on 
it and went.' 

F., 16. 'When 12 or 13, at the advice of an old 
woman, I asked God to take my heart. I did feel very 
happy ; I never have felt so sincere and earnest and 
anxious to be good/ (Was confirmed at 16.) 

F., 17. * I had made a start at 15 at revival meeting, 
but did not join church, and let it all pass over. (When 
17) I felt the love and mercy of God. After an hour of 
pleading and prayer I felt relief from my sins/ 

F., 16. 'I began to feel conviction at 11 years of 
age/ 

F, 16. ' I experienced a sort of half conversion two 
years before/ 

From these quotations it would appear that there 
is a normal age for conversion at about the beginning 
of adolescence. If that is not complete, or is resisted, a 
relapse follows. Then there is another time of aroused 
activity, from two to four years later. This appears to 
be a normal ebb and flow of religious interest. 

1 F. and M. denote female and male. The numbers indicate the age 
at the time of conversion. 



THE AGE OF CONVERSION 47 

There are various other causes for the postponement 
of conversion, as suggested in the following typical 
instances : — 

R, 16. ' When I was 10 years old mother died. I 
lost interest in everything ; I felt dazed and lived in a 
sort of dream until 16, when I attended revival. I had 
intense remorse. With tears came relief and joy ; my 
whole life was changed from that hour/ 

F., 17. C (I was carefully trained and taught to pray.) 
When 14 I had companions who laughed at religion ; 
I became like them. I often had stings of conscience. 
(When 17) I attended meeting; I felt that God had 
forgiven my sins/ 

F., 18. ' As a child of 9, I was petted and spoiled ; 
was much with people who cared little for religion. 
When 18 the downfall and death of a friend I had 
trusted set me to thinking. I cried to God for mercy 
and forgiveness/ 

F., 16. ' My parents were agnostic. I had no 
Christian influence, but the contrary. I felt the need 
of religion/ 

M., 16. ' I was a wild, wicked boy, and my father 
took pride in my wildness. I had been to an uproarious 
wedding. When I got home I felt condemned. I had 
an awful impression that death had come/ 

M., 18. * I was not brought up in a religious family. 
I was the first of my family, except mother, to become 
a Christian/ 

F., 17. ' I had made many resolutions to be a 
Christian, but pride kept me from telling it/ 

F., 18. ' I had suffered for years wanting to be a 
Christian, and not knowing how/ 

M., 19. * From earliest boyhood I had longed to be 
a Christian. I had lived a careful, good life, in the hope 
of being accepted of God because I refrained from evil/ 

F., 16. ' From 10 to 16 I only cared to have a good 
time, and let myself drift along/ 

M., 18. ' I called myself morally upright, never be- 
lieving what I said exactly/ 



48 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

In these quotations we see several causes reflected for 
the later increments in the curves : through some acci- 
dent, or some defect in early training, the person is not 
sufficiently developed to respond to spiritual influ- 
ences at the first normal period ; some trait of char- 
acter, such as reserve, pride or wilfulness, has prevented 
a response to the first impulse. If we add to these an 
intellectual ripening for religious insight and a natural 
ebb and flow of religious interest, we have a partial 
description of the processes which cause the later en- 
largements of the curves, 



CHAPTER IV 

THE MOTIVES AND FORCES LEADING TO CONVERSION 

A STUDY of the motives and forces which lead to 
religious awakening may cast a little light ahead on 
the nature of conversion. It shows us something of 
the forces that are at work in the religious life, their 
relative prominence, and how they vary with age and 
sex. Furthermore, it may furnish some scientific and 
educational suggestions of value. 

The method of studying the motives and forces was 
to group them according to their likenesses and differ- 
ences. They seem to fall naturally into eight groups — 
fears, other self-regarding motives, altruistic motives, 
following out a moral ideal, remorse and conviction for 
sin, response to teaching, example and imitation, urging 
and other forms of social pressure. The naming of the 
groups is inadequate ; their character will be better ap- 
preciated by the representative instances given below : — 

1. Fears. — F., 12. ' The terrors of hell were dwelt on 
at revival until I became so scared I cried/ F.,. 14. 

* Had I died I had no hope, only eternal loss/ M., 15. 
' I feared God's punishment/ M., 22. ' I had fear of 

death and waking up in / In many instances fears 

were declared to be entirely absent, as in this : M., 18. 

* Two ministers told me I'd go to hell if I didn't 
make a stand. I said I'd never be a Christian to dodge 
hell/ 

2. Other self-regarding motives. — R, 17. * I wanted 
the approval of others/ F., 11. ' Father had died and I 
thought I would get to meet him/ M., 7. c Ambition 



So THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

of a refined sort influenced me.' M., 18. ' I thought the 
man who is best is strongest and happiest.' 

3. Altruistic motives. — M., 18. ' I wanted to exert 
the right influence over my pupils at school.' F., 16. ' I 
felt I must be better and do more good in the world/ 
R, 19. ' The wish to please my minister counteracted 
my negative attitude.' F., : — . * It was love for God 
who had done so much for me.' 

4. Following out a moral ideal. — M., 14. ' I was 
moved by a feeling of duty.' M., 16. ' I wanted to be 
good and to control my anger and passions.' F., 17. ' I 
had an inner conviction that it was a good thing to do.' 
M., 15. * I had a yearning for a higher ideal of life.' 
F., 13. * It was spontaneous awakening to a divine 
impulse.' Groups 3 and 4 run into each other. The 
sense of duty which was not referred objectively is 
included in the latter. 

5. Remorse and conviction for sin. — F., 17. 'Remorse 
for past conduct was my chief motive.' M., 18. 'I 
was thoroughly convicted of sin.' F., 14. ' My sins 
were very plain to me. I thought myself the greatest 
sinner in the world.' F., 18. 'The downfall and death 
of a friend I had trusted set me to thinking ; I 
wondered if I were not worse than she.' 

6. Response to teaching. — F., 11. 'Mother talked 
to me and made the way of salvation plain.' F., — . 
'A sermon that seemed just meant for me set me to 
thinking.' M., 23. 'The teaching of Christ appealed 
strongly to my reason and judgment.' Evangelical 
sermons described as emotional are included in group 
8 below. 

7. Example and imitation. — M., 15. 'It began 
largely as imitation.' F., 16. ' I saw so many becoming 
good that I just had to become a Christian.' F., 13. 
1 For the first time I came in contact with a Christian 
family. Their influence induced me to become a 
Christian.' M., 16. 'I thought only the power of 
religion could make me live such a life as brother's.* 
This group ranges from mere imitation to sympathy 



MOTIVES LEADING TO CONVERSION Ji 

with a great personality, where it closely approaches 
group 4. 

8. Urging, and social pleasure. — M., 15. * The girls 
coaxed me at school. Estimable ladies and deacons 
gathered around me and urged me to flee from the 
wrath to come/ F., 13. ' I took the course pointed 
out at the time/ R, 14. ' A pleading word from my 
teacher helped me.' Imitation, and social pressure are 
frequently so intense that the individuality of the 
subject is entirely lost. M., — . ' It seems to me now 
hypnotic/ F., 16. ' The sermon moved me; they 
sang. Before I realised what had happened, I was 
kneeling at the altar rail. I never knew what was said 
to me/ In such cases, there is one of two results; 
either the forced position is accepted as the right one, 
or the person rebels when partial independence is gained. 
The former are included in this study. The cases in 
which the person appeared entirely to lose his or her 
individuality, and immediately to react against a 
forced conformity, demand consideration by them- 
selves, and are treated in a separate chapter. M., 50. 
' It was the buoyancy of the atmosphere that made me 
go forward ; I had nothing to do with it. I could have 
done the same thing every week without any change 
in my character/ 

1. The Relative Prominence of the Different Motives 
and Forces. — Table VI. shows the relative prominence 
of the motives and forces illustrated above, as deter- 
mined by the frequency with which each was named by 
the subjects. The evaluation was made in three ways — - 
(a) Taking only the motives mentioned as the most 
prominent ones ; (b) trying to form an estimate of the 
value of all the motives wherever mentioned, by dupli- 
cating those apparently very prominent * (c) simply 
counting the frequency of all the motives mentioned. 
The first method made the self-regarding motives about 
one-third more prominent than the other two ways, and 
subtracted from the moral-ideal class. The last two 
methods gave nearly the same results. Table VI. is the 



52 



THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 



result of the third method. For the purpose of com- 
paring the columns among themselves, the percentages 
are so reduced that each column foots up ioo; that is, 
they show the relative and not the absolute prominence 
of the motives and forces. For example, among the 
males, fears as motives to conversion are mentioned twice 
as often as other self-regarding motives. 



Motives and Forces Present at Conversion. 


Females. 


Males. 


Both Females 
and Males. 




Per cent. 


Per cent. 


Per cent. 


i. Fear of Death or Hell 


14 


H 


14 


2. Other Self- Regarding Motives . 


5 


7 


6 


3. Altruistic Motives .... 


6 


4 


5 


4. Following out a Moral Ideal 


15 


20 


17 


5. Remorse, Conviction for Sin, etc. 


15 


18 


16 


6. Response to Teaching 


11 


8 


IO 


7. Example, Imitation, etc. . 


14 


12 


13 


8. Social Pressure, Urging, etc. 


20 


17 


19 


Sum of 1 and 2 — Self - Regarding Motives . 


19 


21 


20 


Sum of 3 and 4 — Other- Regarding and 








Ideal Motives 


21 


24 


22 


Sum of 1 to 5— Subjective Forces . 


55 


63 


58 


Sum of 6 to 8 — Objective Forces . 


45 


37 


42 



Table VI. — Showing the relative frequency of certain motives and 
forces which lead to conversion. 

There are a few points in the table which deserve 
attention. The altruistic motives and the response to a 
moral ideal form a group which may be called dis- 
tinctively moral motives. The sum is about the same 
as that of all the self-regarding motives taken together. 
Conviction for sin is about as prominent as response to 
a moral ideal. Although the motives present before 
conversion perhaps show nothing as to the nature of 
the finished spiritual product, it is significant that at 
this time persons are not only driven by egoistic 
and instinctive feelings, but are drawn by ideal con- 
siderations. 



MOTIVES LEADING TO CONVERSION 55 

Still we should notice how much more important are 
those forces which seem to be racial and instinctive than 
the others. In the first place, response to teaching and 
altruistic motives are the least prominent of all, while 
fear of death and hell, conviction for sin, imitation and 
social pressure are the most frequent. Fears are a large 
factor. Hope of heaven is nearly absent. Fears appear 
to be present about fifteen times as often as hope. 
Only 5 per cent, are altruistic motives ; and if we select 
from these the ones who mention love of God or Christ 
as leading them to a higher life, w r e find only 2 per cent. 
This is significant in view of the fact that love of God 
is a point of great emphasis in Christian ethics. It is of 
interest to compare fear of hell and conviction for sin, 
which are prominent, with hope of heaven and love of 
Christ and God, which are almost absent. These four 
are all central in Christian theology, and might be 
supposed to be about equal as religious incentives. If 
we combine this with the fact that response to teaching 
represents only 10 per cent, of all the forces, and that, 
of the objective forces, imitation and social pressure 
are largest, we begin to see what a small part rational 
consideratiojis play in conversion as compared with in- 
stinctive. Subjective forces are about one and one-half 
times more frequent than external forces. 

2. Comparison of Males and Females. — Fear of death 
and hell is about equally present among males and 
females. The altruistic motives are greater among 
females. The other three subjective forces — other self- 
regarding motives, response to a moral ideal, and con- 
viction for sin — are more prominent among males, while 
the three groups of objective forces predominate among 
females. The inference seems to be that males are 
controlled more from zvithin, while the females are con- 
trolled moi'e from without. 

3. The Revival Cases Compared with the Others. — It 
is of value to compare the forces which lead to con- 
version among persons who are influenced by the more 
vigorous methods of revivals, and those who are con- 



54 



THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 



verted while alone or in the quieter surroundings of a 
regular church service. This is shown in Table VII. 
There were no additional differences between men and 
women in the new classification of sufficient importance 
to warrant keeping the sexes separate. 



Motives and Forces present at Conversion. 


Both Females and Males. 


Revival. 


Non-Revival. 


1. Fear of Death and Hell . 

2. Other Self- Regarding Motives 

3. Altruistic Motives .... 

4. Following out a Moral Ideal . 

5. Remorse, Conviction for Sin, etc. . 

6. Response to Teaching .... 

7. Example, Imitation ♦ 

8. Social Pressure, etc 


14 
6 

5 
IS 
14 

8 

15 
23 


13 

5 
7 

19 
18 

13 
11 

14 


Sum of 1 and 2 — Self- Regarding Motives 
Sum of 3 and 4 — Other- Regarding Motives . 
Sum of 1 to 5 — Subjective Forces 
Sum of 6 to 8 — Objective Forces 


20 
20 

40 
60 


18 
26 
44 
56 



Table VII. — A compariso7i of the revival and non-revival cases in 
regard to the motives and forces leading to conversion. 

In comparing the two classes, we notice that imitation 
and social pressure are, as one would anticipate, greater 
in the revival cases. Response to teaching and fol- 
lowing out a moral ideal, on the contrary, are greater 
among the others. It would seem, consequently, that 
emotional pressure is exerted at the expense of rational 
insight. It is an unexpected coincidence that the sense 
of sin is greater in the non-revival cases. This is 
especially noteworthy when we consider that revival 
methods emphasise the fact of sin and the means of 
escape from it. One element in the explanation pro- 
bably lies in this, that revivals, by the stimulus of 
the ensemble, carry persons over the tendency to intro- 
spection, which results in the sense of unworthiness. 



MOTIVES LEADING TO CONVERSION 55 

The other fact which underlies the phenomenon must 
be that there is a strong bent in human nature for such 
feelings. In this connection it should be noticed that 
fears are about as common in the non-revival group as 
in the other. This is evidence that the charge often 
made against revivals, that they stir up unduly the 
lower religious incentives, such as fear and the sense of 
sin, is not entirely just. They do not so much awaken 
these highly emotional states as appeal to those instincts 
already at work in consciousness ', and which would 
probably show themselves spontaneously a year or 
two later. 

The average age was worked out at which each of 
the groups of motives occurs as a decisive factor in con- 
version. The result was that the same motives culmin- 
ate earlier in the revival cases than in the others, 
sometimes by as much as two years. For example, the 
average of the revival conversions in which the sense of 
sin was mentioned as a motive is 14.1 years, as against 
1 5 in the non-revival group. That is, the effect of revivals 
is to hasten somewhat the working of specific motives. 

4. The Variation of Motives with Age, — There 
seems to be a normal age when the different motives 
should assert themselves. The calculation of the ages 
of conversions in which the various motives occur shows 
that the motives tend to arrange themselves in a serial 
order according to age. The series, from the earliest to 
the latest, is the following : — imitation, social pressure, 
conviction for sin, fear of death and hell, response to 
teaching, following out a moral ideal and altruistic 
motives. In this series those forces which were desig- 
nated above as racial and instinctive come as a rule 
earlier. 

The way in which these sets of motives vary with 
age is shown in a different way in Figure 4, in which the 
various subjective influences at work at the time of con- 
version are plotted to show their frequency for different 
years. Curves G, H and I are made on the basis of the 
ratio in hundredths between the number of times each 



56 



THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 



motive was said to be present, and the number of con- 
versions for each year. Before 10 and after 19 the cases 
are scattering, and the curves too irregular to be of 
value. The curves throughout are based on too few 
cases to be interpreted in their finer irregularities. They 
can be relied on only as showing general tendencies. 



100 

£0 
80 
70 






















/ 








G 


A 












/ 


/ 










% 




/ 






1 


/ 














:^ 


/ 


\/ 








1 




60 
40 
SO 








? 






/ 

/ 




y^ 












< 
■*■/ 


/ 














V 








ff/ 




>?y 




















// 









































































14 
AGE 



Figure 4. — Showing the frequency of various motives for different 
years, {Females,) 

In earlier years, as shown in the figure, the self-regard- 
ing motives, of which a large part are fears, are by far in 
the predominance. They gradually decrease. Curve I., 
for altruistic and moral-ideal motives, exactly contradicts 
G. It represents the dawn of the moral consciousness. 
After 15, moral and other-regarding incentives are pre- 
sent in almost every case. The sense of sin, curve H, 
increases up to the early years of adolescence, then 



MOTIVES LEADING TO CONVERSION 57 

gradually decreases. It may be connected with the 
rapid nervous changes of early adolescence, and the 
corresponding arousal of new, large, confused, organic 
impressions, the mental unrest and uncertainty, the 
undefined and unclarified ideas that come at this period 
when fresh life is making itself felt. 

The men did not make so full a record of motives 
as the women. They were also fewer. The curves for 
males were consequently too vacillating to be of value. 
The curve for moral motives was very similar to that 
in the figure, but it was clear that the self-regarding 
motives did not decrease as in the case of females. 

If we were to judge the nature of conversion by the 
forces which lead to it, we should say that conversions 
during later adolescence represent a different kind of 
experience from those in the earlier years. 



CHAPTER V 

EXPERIENCES PRECEDING CONVERSION 

I. Some General Considerations. — Just before the 
apparent break in the continuity of life called the 
change of heart, there is usually a mental state known 
as l conviction/ or the ' sense of sin.' It is designated in 
various ways by the respondents, such as the feeling of 
imperfection, incompleteness, undoneness, unworthiness, 
and the like. There are many shades of experience in 
this pre-conversion state. An attempt at a classification 
of them gave these not very distinct groups : — Conviction 
for sin proper ; struggle after the new life ; prayer, call- 
ing on God ; sense of estrangement from God ; doubts 
and questionings ; tendency to resist conviction ; depres- 
sion and sadness ; restlessness, anxiety and uncertainty; 
helplessness and humility ; earnestness and seriousness ; 
and the various bodily affections. The result of an 
analysis of these different shades of experience coincides 
with the common designation of this pre-conversion state 
in making the central fact in it all the sense of sin, while 
the other conditions are various manifestations of this y as 
determined, first, by differences in temperament, and, second, 
by whether the ideal life or the sinful life is vivid in con- 
sciousness. In order to make this point clear, we shall 
begin at the end in picturing this stage in conversion. 
After the facts were analysed and grouped, it appeared 
that some such relation existed among them as is shown 
in Table VIII. Although there may have been a slight 
straining to make one or two of the groups fit the scheme, 
they show in general what is true, and the whole diagram 

58 



EXPERIENCES PRECEDING CONVERSION 59 

is approximately correct. If we have it in mind at the 
beginning, it will facilitate the discussion which follows. 
The cases arrange themselves pretty naturally in two 
series. In the first place, they form a series as deter- 
mined by temperament. There are those at one end of 
the line who are thrown back on themselves, and who 
remain helpless, depressed and estranged from God. At 
the other extreme are those who reach out in the direc- 
tion of the new life, who strive toward it, and pray 
toward it, or, if the forces which awaken the impulse 
toward the higher life have dawned unawares and in 





Passive Tempera- 
ment. 


Intermediate. 


Active Tempera- 
ment. 


Ideal Life Domi- 
nant in Con- 
sciousness. 


Est rangement 
from God. 


Doubts and 
questionings- 


Desire for a 
better life. 


Intermediate. 


Helplessness, 
humility. 


Restlessness, 
anxiety, un- 
certainty. 


Earnestness, seri- 
ousness, prayer. 


Sinful Life Domi- 
nant in Con- 
sciousness. 


Depression, sad- 
ness, meditation. 


Sense of sin. 


Tendency to re- 
sist conviction. 



Table VIII. — Representing the different ways in which the sense of sin 
shows itself as determined by temperament and by tuhether the 
ideal life or the sinful life is dominant in consciousness. 

spite of themselves, they wilfully oppose the new in- 
fluences. Between these two extremes are those who 
are eminently conscious of sin, but remain poised in a 
state of restlessness and anxiety, or who vacillate between 
activity and passivity. This temperamental series, that 
is, ranges all the way from persons, on the one hand, 
who are passive, to those, on the other, who are active 
and positive. 

The other series is determined by that element of 
the change of life which is present in consciousness. In 
conversion there always appear to be two things either 
clearly present or implicit, viz., the old life and the new. 



6o THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

Sometimes one is uppermost in consciousness, sometimes 
the other. Sometimes neither is explicit, but both seem 
to be at work simultaneously, though unconsciously to 
the subject, and to throw the life into distress and unrest. 
At one extreme in this series are the groups in the 
lowest line of the scheme above. There is the sense of 
sin itself; there is the sense of extreme un worthiness, 
which brings depression and sadness; or if the new life 
has come unawares, there is still a clinging to the old 
life, and a tendency to resist the new. In the top line 
are the groups at the other extreme, in which the new 
life stands out more or less clearly in consciousness. 
By these persons the ideal life is pictured either in 
abstract terms, and there is a striving towards it, or else 
as God, an ideal which is afar off. Intermediate are the 
confused organic states known as helplessness and rest- 
lessness, or as mere undirected nervous tension described 
as earnestness and seriousness. 

2. The Different Types of Pre-Conversion Experiences. 
— By way of arriving at an accurate conception of the 
pre-conversion state, we shall let the cases speak for 
themselves which represent the various types. 

That which may be called the distinctive type, the 
sense of sin, is not different in kind from what we have 
already seen described as a motive to conversion. F., 12. 
i I was very wicked. My heart was black.* M., 17. ( I 
experienced nothing but a great and unaccountable 
wretchedness/ Such states are often of long duration, 
and persist without any reason one can ascertain in the 
person's life or conduct. F., 25. 'I attended church all 
through my childhood. I had no particularly evil ways. 
There always seemed to be a drawing of the spirit. . . . 
I seemed always to be under conviction. Hearing of 
sermons, religious conversation, anything of that kind, 
would give me a sense of something I had not. As I had 
joined church at 8 years, of course I passed for a Chris- 
tian, and sometimes took part in meetings from a sense 
of duty. Between these times of conviction the im- 
pression would wear off, only to be revived at the first 



EXPERIENCES PRECEDING CONVERSION 61 

opportunity. Many times I sought to be saved, but 
without finding relief/ There are many instances of this 
sort. In the persistence of such experiences, without an 
apparent cause, we perhaps see the condition underlying 
the doctrine of * original sin/ 

These experiences shade off into depression and sad- 
nesSy in which both the pain and negative elements are 
strong. F., 13. 'The thought of my condition was 
terrible/ R, 16. 'For nights and days my mind was 
troubled/ M., 16. 'For three months it seemed as if 
God's spirit had withdrawn from me. There seemed to 
be a desolation of soul. Fear took hold of me. For a 
week I was on the border of despair/ 

Slightly relieved from the pain element, but still 
negative, are self-distrust and helplessness. F., 23. ' I 
was discouraged, and felt it was of no use to try/ F., 18. 
i I had suffered for years, wanting to be a Christian, and 
not knowing how/ F., 16. ' I had an awful feeling of 
helplessness/ 

The consciousness of God often stands over one, and 
brings condemnation and a sense of estrangement. M., 
19. 'Gazing pensively at the stream which ran through 
my father's farm, I felt that it was more in harmony 
with God than 1/ M., 15. ' A sense of sinfulness and 
estrangement from God grew on me daily/ M., 16. 
' I felt that God despised me/ M., 16. ' I felt a lack of 
harmony with the Divine Being, and a sense of continu- 
ally offending Him/ There is often a feeling of separa- 
tion from friends. This is doubtless of the same sort, 
and grows out of the individual's feeling of detachment 
from the whole. 

Between the extremes is an indefinable sense of 
imperfection, a wanting something and not knowing 
what, which gives rise to the feelings of restlessness and 
anxiety. M., 12. 'Everything went wrong with me. It 
seemed like Sunday all the time/ M., 15. ' I was con- 
stantly worrying.' F., 14. ' I thought something terrible 
was going to happen/^ F., 23. 'I felt wrong, mentally 
and morally/ F., 17. 'I could not keep my mind on 

6 



62 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

anything/ F., 12. 'I couldn't work/ M., 19. 'I felt a 
want, an unrest, an aching void the world could never 

fill/ 

The general class of more positive experiences, with- 
out keeping the groups separate, are illustrated in the 
following : — M., 16. ' Before conversion my mind was in 
a state of great anxiety. The fleshly mind was all 
aflame, and my guilt was hideous to me. Because I 
belonged to church I felt myself a hypocrite. I prayed 
and studied continually to attain a state of assurance/ 
F., 18. 'I grew so distressed I cried to God for mercy 
and forgiveness/ F., — . ' I felt a weight of sin. I prayed 
not to die until I became better/ F., 15. ' I fought and 
struggled in prayer to get the feeling that God was with 
me/ In the tendency to resist conviction, one sees re- 
flected something of the nature of conversion, and the 
explanation of some of the phenomena following it. 
M., 15. (Carefully trained, fell into bad associations, and 
came under the influence of revival.) ' I resisted as long 
as possible by finding fault with the church and its 
members, saying I didn't believe the Bible, or that there 
was a hell. I was afraid to go to church or to bed.' 
M., 15. * I strictly avoided any conversation tending in 
any way toward moral or religious topics. Conviction 
became torture, yet I could not yield/ M., 12. ' There 
was a sort of inward tendency to resist, which did not 
show itself outwardly/ F., 16. 'I stayed away from 
revivals and prayer meetings for fear of giving way to 
my convictions.' F., 17. ' I tried in every way to escape 
a friend interested in me, and the minister. In prayer- 
meeting I would hold on to the seat by main force to 
keep from rising for prayer/ F., 16. ' I often fought 
against crying, the conviction was so strong/ F., 12. ' I 
would tell myself, "You ought to join church"; then I 
would say, "No, you can't be good enough." ' F., 18. 
' I dreaded to go forward.' F, 18. * I tried to throw off 
the feeling by saying all sorts of reckless things about 
God and religion.' In this class of experiences we see, 
doubtless, an illustration of the large factor in conversion 



EXPERIENCES PRECEDING CONVERSION 63 

which is carried out beneath the surface, and which we 
shall notice more fully later on. 

The pre-conversion states are not infrequently de- 
scribed in physical terms : — ' I couldn't eat' ' I would lie 
awake at night/ ' I was excited/ M., 19. c I felt I was 
carrying the world on my shoulders/ M., 19. 'Often, 
very often, I cried myself to sleep/ M., 10. * Hymns 
would sound in my mind as if sung/ F., 15. M had 
visions of Christ, saying to me, " Come to Me, My 
child!" ' M., 17. 'Just before conversion I was walk- 
ing along a pathway, thinking of religious matters, when 
suddenly the word H-e-1-1 was spelled out five yards 
ahead of me/ 

The frequency with which the various kinds of 
affections show themselves is given in Table IX. The 



Mental and Bodily Affections. 



Sense of Sin .... 
Feeling of Estrangement from God 
Desire for Better Life 
Depression, Sadness, Pensiveness 
Restlessness, Anxiety, Uncertainty 
Helplessness, Humility . 
Earnestness, Seriousness . 
Prayer, Calling on God . 
Tendency to Resist Conviction 
Doubts, Questionings 

Loss of Sleep or Appetite 
Nervousness .... 
Weeping .... 

Affection of Sight . 
Affection of Hearing 
Affection of Touch . . . 



Average Duration of Conviction 



Female. 



24 weeks. 



Male. 



33 
24 
18 
60 
33 

9 

1 

f 57 
U5 

29 
5 
3 
6 

7 
12 

69 weeks. 



Total . 



33 
24 
18 
70 

41 
11 

8 
45 
41 

9 

27 
6 

7 

5 

4 

13 



Table IX. — Showing the relative prominence of the various mental and 
bodily affections for both sexes. 



worth of the percentages is more in their relative than 



64 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

in their absolute magnitude. Many of the records were 
not complete, else the numbers might all be greater. 
Looking at the last column of the table, we see that 
depression and sadness is by far the most common 
experience. Next in frequency, and about equal in 
prominence, are restlessness, calling on God, and tend- 
ency to resist conviction. Helplessness is singularly 
small, considering its close kinship with depression, 
which is large. The reason may be found in the close 
relationship of the two, and the fact that the experiences 
happened to be described more often in terms of de- 
pression, which involves the feeling side of the experience. 
Relatively small are earnestness, desire for a better life, 
doubts, and the feeling of estrangement from God. It 
will be noticed that the larger percentages go, as a rule, 
with the groups toward the bottom of Table VIII., and 
the smaller ones toward the top. That is, in the experi- 
ences preceding conversion, the consciousness of sin is 
much more dominant than that of the life toward which 
one is tending. This coincides with what we saw in the 
last chapter, that conversion is a process of struggling 
away from sin y rather than of striving toward righteous- 
ness. Most of it, as far as our picture of conversion at 
the present point shows, is worked out in the sphere of 
undefined feeling, and a relatively small part comes as 
mentally illuminated aspiration. As we saw while study- 
ing the motives, it seems to be a step in growth which 
calls into activity the deeper instincts. The evidence in 
the present discussion is in the fact that the feelings, 
which are the primal elements in consciousness, function 
so strongly. In the tendency to resist conviction we 
see, also, an indication that the new life is forcing its 
way even against the person's will. 

If we turn now to the bodily affections, our evidence 
grows yet stronger. Conversion is a process which 
exercises the whole nature, and frequently disturbs the 
equilibrium of the physical organism. First and most 
often to be disturbed are sleep and appetite, the most 
primal organic functions. In the affections of sense, 



EXPERIENCES PRECEDING CONVERSION 65 

likewise, it is significant that touch, the mother-sense, is 
most affected. Accordingly, we may conclude that 
conversion is a process in which the deeper instinctive life 
most strongly functions. 

3. A Comparison of the Sexes. — In the first two 
columns of Table IX. is seen a comparison in the rough 
of mental and bodily affections of females and males. 
The percentages in the column for females were all 
slightly smaller than in that for males; consequently, 
they were all modified by such a ratio as would make 
make them comparable with the males. This preserves, 
of course, their relative magnitude among themselves. 
In three of the groups — the sense of sin, estrangement 
from God, and desire for a better life — the numbers 
happen to be the same ; in the others there is a pretty 
distinct difference. Among the females those types of 
experience are more common which more distinctly 
belong to the feelings, viz., depression and sadness, 
restlessness and anxiety, and earnestness and serious- 
ness. Set off against these are the doubts and question- 
ings, in which intellection plays a more prominent part, 
and which are far more common among the males. 
Again, helplessness and humility are more frequent with 
females, while prayer and tendency to resist conviction 
preponderate with the males. In other words, the 
volitional element seems to be greater among males, 
while females are more liable to remain in helplessness 
and uncertainty. The differences seem to indicate that 
feeling plays a larger part in the religious life of females ', 
while males are controlled more by intellection and volition. 
The females drift toward the lower left-hand corner of 
the diagram in Table VIII., and the males toward the 
upper and right-hand sides. It is true that desire for 
a better life is equally prominent in the two sexes ; but 
the characteristic element in this group is aspiration, 
which is as much a feeling as a volition. This apparent 
difference is borne out by the fact that the average 
duration of conviction is more than twice as long among 
males. We saw in the last chapter that the subjective 



66 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

forces leading to conversion are greater in males, while 
imitation and social pressure are greater in females. 1 
Among the respondents there are six times as many 
females as males who experience conversion in the 
regular church service or prayer-meeting. On the other 
hand, there are twice as many males as females who are 
converted at home, and generally alone. Females are 
clearly more impressionable, are more ready to accept 
the help of the external institutional system in working 
out their life-problems, and respond more quickly and 
intuitively to the feelings which are aroused. In begin- 
ning the new life the male is more self-dependent, works 
his way more by his own insight, is suspended longer 
between the old life and the new, and rebels more 
strenuously if he finds the demands of the social or 
moral order outside conflicting with his own will. 

In this section we have thrown both the revival and 
non-revival cases together. We shall see in a more 
pronounced way the difference between the sexes when, 
in the following section, we consider these two classes 
separately. 

4. A Comparison of the Revival Cases and the 
Others. — A study of the differences in the pre-con- 
version phenomena which accompany revival experi- 
ences, as compared with those conversions which occur 
under more quiet surroundings, throws a little light on 
the nature of conversion, and also makes clear some of 
the aspects of human nature which underlie and con- 
dition the things that appear. The results of the com- 
parison are summed up in Table X. The differences 
between the sexes are so marked that it is necessary to 
keep them separate in the table. The per cents, indicate 
the actual fraction of each class considered who men- 
tioned any particular type of experience. 

We see in the first place that the characteristic feel- 
ings involved, viz., the sense of sin and depression and 
sadness, are present in all the classes. The sense of sin 
is more pronounced among the non-revival males than 
among those converted at revival. The fact that such 



EXPERIENCES PRECEDING CONVERSION 67 

feelings are present in the diverse surroundings tends 
to show that the sense of sin and depression of feeling 
are fundamental factors in conversion if not in religious 
experience in general. 





Females. 


Ma 


es. 


Experiences immediately before 










Conversion. 


Revival. 


Non- 
Revival. 


Revival. 


Non- 
Revival. 


Sense of Sin .... 


28 


26 


23 


43 


Feeling of Estrangement from God 


15 


25 


3° 


16 


Desire for Better Life . 


12 


16 


15 


21 


Depression, Sadness, Pensiveness . 


65 


59 


69 


50 


Restlessness, Anxiety, Uncertainty 


25 


55 


50 


16 


Helplessness, Humility 


12 


8 


3 


14 


Earnestness, Seriousness 


8 


11 





3 


Prayer, Calling on God 


24 


41 


53 


63 


Tendency to resist Conviction 


27 


35 


65 


30 


Doubts, Questionings . 


I 


8 


5 


24 


Loss of Sleep and Appetite . 


13 


27 


37 


20 


Nervousness .... 


4 


4 


9 





Weeping ..... 


6 


8 


5 





Affection of Sight 


2 


6 


9 


3 


Affection of Hearing . . 


4 





7 


8 


Affection of Touch 


10 


9 


22 





Relative Number of Affections (Sum) 


256 


338 


407 


3ii 


Average Duration of Conviction 


1 5 wks. 


36 wks. 


74 wks. 


6} wks. 



Table X. — Showing the frequency in per cents, of different mental and 
bodily affections preceding conversion in revival cases as compared, 
with others. 

In respect, however, to many of those types of experi- 
ence which we have found to depend on temperament 
and the presence in consciousness of either the ideal or 
sinful life, there are marked differences between the 
revival and non-revival cases. Let us notice first the 
two classes of males, and leave out of consideration for 
the present the females. In the first place, the number 
of affections given in the description of the experiences 
is much greater among the revival cases. The bodily 



6S THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

affections belong almost entirely to this class. These 
facts seem to show that the revival conversions among 
the males are far more intense experiences than the 
non-revival. The revival converts feel more intensely 
the sense of estrangement from God, and are more 
restless and anxious; they carry their anxiety into the 
night, and it irradiates in terms of sense-experience. 
Another set of differences seems to show that males 
naturally mark out their own course ; doubts and ques- 
tionings, which belong almost entirely to this sex, are 
again almost exclusively present in the non- revival 
cases ; when left alone we notice also that males are 
more earnest and serious, have a greater feeling of help- 
lessness in the struggle, and have the ideal life more in 
consciousness, as shown by the larger per cent, in the 
desire for a better life. Intermediate between these two 
sets of facts is the much greater tendency of the revival 
converts to resist conviction. The differences in the 
revival and non-revival males show that the males when 
not at revival insist more upon seeing their way clearly 
toward the new life, that they are more wilful in the 
stress of a revival, and that the revival conversion is a 
far more intense experience. 

Now, if we consider the two classes of females, we find 
them contradicting nearly everything we found true for 
the males. The column of affections foots up less in 
revival cases instead of more ; the bodily affections are 
fewer; there is less restlessness and anxiety than in 
the conversions which occur in the quiet ; the sense of 
estrangement from God is not so prominent. In short, 
the revival conversions for females are far less intense than 
the non-revival. As we should expect, there is agree- 
ment in the two sexes in that doubts and questionings, 
earnestness and seriousness, and the desire for a better 
life are more prominent in the non-revival cases. The 
effect of the emotionalism of a revival seems to be, as 
we saw in the last chapter, to blur the clearness of 
spiritual perception. But with females there is the con- 
tradiction again that resistance to conviction is much 



EXPERIENCES PRECEDING CONVERSION 69 

less in the revival cases than in the non-revival. The 
women seem to accept the help of external influences 
rather than to rebel against them. When left alone, 
conversion is for the female a more serious, if not a 
more genuine experience. One apparent reason why 
the stress is greater with the women who are not influ- 
enced directly by revivals is that they are not able alone 
to work through their difficulties, and modesty and 
reserve keep them from making their difficulties known. 
F., 11. 'I began to think deeply on religious subjects. 
I longed for some one to talk with about them/ F., 16. 
'I began thinking and thinking by myself/ F., 13. * I 
used to lie awake and cry over my sins/ It is clear 
that one fact underlying the differences in revival and 
non-revival conversions among females is that females 
are more reserved, and lack an active temperament to carry 
them through the stress and strain of conviction, 

5. The Nature of the Sense of Sin. — We have already 
had many evidences that the sense of sin (using the 
term broadly to include depression, helplessness, and 
the like) has temperamental conditions as its back- 
ground. For the purpose of seeing farther into its 
nature, the female and male cases were grouped so as 
to show how far it is the result of bad moral training 
and actual waywardness. Only such were used as 
showed in a rather pronounced way the presence or 
absence of the sense of sin and of previous immorality. 
When conversion has been preceded by waywardness, 
the sense of sin is nearly always present. In such 
instances it is absent in the males in only one-tenth of 
the cases, and by an even smaller fraction in females. 
That is, as we should expect, the sense of sin follows 
naturally in the wake of evil. 

But the question comes, Does such a feeling arise when 
persons have led an upright life ? Among the males, when 
the previous life is described as fairly upright, the sense of 
sin is present and absent in about the same number of 
instances. Among the females the feeling of guilt is even 
more independent of conduct. Of the cases described 



70 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

as of good training and of moral and even religious 
observance, more than two-thirds give evidence in a 
pronounced way of the sense of sin. This is a typical 
instance: F., n. 'I was brought up in very pious 
Methodist surroundings. I had not been led into evil 
ways ; I was considered an unusually good child ; but 
my sense of guilt before God was very deep. I had a 
deep conviction of sin from my earliest recollection. 
The realisation of the hatefulnesss of sin was stronger 
than the fear of the consequences/ 

These facts seem to show that although the sense of 
sin comes naturally as the sequence of bad habits and 
conscious evil, it is not occasioned wholly by them, and 
perhaps has other causes. Its greater prominence 
among females of good moral training may be traceable 
in part directly to irpperfect physical conditions. 
Hysteria and other nervous and circulatory disorders 
are more common among adolescent females than males, 1 
and far more common during adolescence than later. 
Many of the symptoms of these diseases are the same as 
those shown before conversion. There are evidences, 
too, that the extreme dejection, self-distrust, self-con- 
demnation and the like, in males, are traceable, in part, 
to physiological causes. About one-third of the males 
gave sexual temptations as among those of youth, and 
nearly always it was said to be the chief temptation. 
In nearly all these instances the phenomena during 
conviction are remarkably similar to those which follow 
the sexual evil. These are typical: M., 12. ' Every- 
thing seemed dead/ M., 19. 'Before conversion I had 
not a single happy day, because of dread of the future.' 
M., 15. 'I had fear of being lost; was pensive and 
worried ; was greatly depressed and could not sleep.' 
M., 18. * I was troubled with fears, was thoroughly con- 
victed of sin, filled with remorse, and ashamed of my 
condition. I was uneasy, and for days longed for God's 
forgiveness.' In 90 per cent, of the cases, remorse, 
fear of death, depression and the like entered pro- 
1 Cf. W. R. Gowers, Diseases of the Nervous System, Vol. II., p. 985. 



EXPERIENCES PRECEDING CONVERSION 71 

minently among the conviction states. A few gave 
escape from sin among the motives for conversion. We 
may safely say that we have to look for the cause under- 
lying the sense of sin, in part, in certain temperamental 
and organic conditions, and not to consider it simply as 
a spiritual fact. 

Prof. Geo. A. Coe, of Northwestern University, 
has taken up specifically the question of the relation 
between temperament and the nature of religious ex- 
perience. He has, happily, reduced the matter to a 
high degree of certainty, and in so doing has made a 
permanent contribution to the psychology of religion. 
He has kindly allowed me to quote from his manuscript, 
which has not yet been published. 

In a study of 74 persons, 50 males and 24 females, 
he has investigated the conditions of temperament which 
determine the degree of abruptness of religious changes. 
What is the mental mechanism to which the methods 
used in bringing about religious transformations appeal, 
and why does it fail of its results in many cases in which 
the conditions give hope of success ? 

* In order to secure definite grounds for an hypothesis 
on this point, the persons under examination were 
divided into two groups, those who had experienced a 
marked transformation, and those who had not. ... In 
the second place, a cross division was made on the basis 
of pre-disposition of the mind towards such experiences. 
Let us call this basis "expectation of transformation." . . . 
Combining these two modes of division, we secure two 
positive classes for minute study — those who expected a 
transformation and experienced one, and those who 
expected but failed to experience. In the working out 
of this scheme, a third division was found necessary in 
order to tabulate the cases in which these overlap. 

4 The mode of procedure now consisted, first, of 
judging whether sensibility, intellect or will was the 
most prominent faculty ; next, of finding the second in 
prominence ; then of estimating the place of each of 
the three faculties in respect to promptness and intensity. 



72 



THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 



For each subject, in the end, there were three descriptive 
designations, as, for example, prompt-intense intellect, 
prompt-weak sensibility, prompt-weak will, and these 
three were arranged in the order of prominence. . . . 

'The data were secured by the following methods. 
First, by inserting in the question list a number of 
questions concerning likes and dislikes, laughter and 
weeping, anger and its effects, habits of introspection, 
moods, promptness or its opposite in decisions, and so 
on. . . . The second method was by observation of the 
general tone of the papers. . . . The third method was 
by objective observation and interviews. . . . Further- 
more, in most cases, independent judgments were formed 
by different observers, and these judgments were finally 
checked off against one another. . . . 

1 The temperamental classification of the members of 
the three groups, concerning whom adequate information 
was obtainable, yields the following results : — 

RELATION OF STRIKING TRANSFORMATION TO 
TEMPERAMENT. 













V 








^S 


a 


c 








^£ 


GROurs L, II. AND III. 


~ c 

i-s 


z 

1—1 u 


vt 

U 


6 5 
z> 


c 

G 


Ph^ 


^0 




Ph 


Ph 


Ph 




CO 




00 


17 persons who ex- 
















pected a transfor- 
















mation and experi- 
















enced it 


12 


2 


3 


I 


6 


s 


2 


12 who expected but 
















did not experience, 


2 


9 


1 


7 


3 


2 


O 


5 others who belong 
















to both the above 
















classes . 


2 


2 


1 








O 






1 The most marked contrast in this table concerns the 
relation of the two main groups to intellect and sensi- 



EXPERIENCES PRECEDING CONVERSION 73 

bility. Where expectation is satisfied, there sensibility 
is distinctly predominant ; but where expectation is 
disappointed, there intellect is just as distinctly pre- 
dominant. To appreciate the strength of this conclusion, 
it will be well to remind ourselves once more of the 
range of facts upon which it is based. In only three 
cases in Group I. and one case in Group II. was it 
necessary to rely solely upon the subject's paper. A 
second interesting result is that those whose expectation 
is satisfied belong almost exclusively to the slow-intense 
and prompt-weak varieties, the temperaments approach- 
ing most nearly those traditionally known as the 
melancholic and sanguine. On the other hand, those 
whose expectation is disappointed, belong more largely 
to the prompt-intense variety, or the choleric tempera- 
ment, though the distribution between the choleric, 
melancholic and sanguine is fairly even. Again, 
comparing the two main groups with respect to 
promptness and intensity, each by itself, we find that, 
on the whole, Group II. exceeds Group I. in both 
promptness and intensity. Finally, some slight con- 
firmation of the representative character of these results 
is found in the heterogeneity of the cases in Group 1 11/ 

An inquiry was next made into the frequency among 
the subjects studied of mental and motor automatisms. 
Of 73 persons examined there were 22, or 30 per cent, 
of them, who had experienced some kind of mental or 
motor automatisms. These consisted in striking 
dreams, hallucinations, or motor automatisms such as 
uncontrollable laughter, clapping of hands, and so forth, 
at the time of religious transformation. Of the 22 who 
had undergone such experiences, 13, or 72 per cent, of 
them, belong to Groups. I and III. above, only one 
belongs to Group II. 'The conclusion from this part 
of our study is that a tendency to automatic mental 
processes is the soil most favourable for striking religious 
transformations.' 

Mr Coe next proceeded to study the relative sug- 
gestibility of the three groups. In doing this he sub- 



74 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

jected the persons studied to hypnotic suggestion, and 
kept a constant look-out for evidences in the subjects of 
spontaneous auto-suggestion. * The problem then be- 
came whether external suggestion was more prominent 
in Group I. and auto-suggestion in Group II. . . • 
What was looked for was evidence of spontaneity or 
originality rather than mere readiness of response or 
its opposite. . . . But the behaviour under suggestion 
was decidedly different. Let us call the two types the 
passive and the spontaneous. Under the former belong 
those who take no decided or original part in the ex- 
periment. Their response to external suggestion may 
not be very pronounced, but they initiate nothing after; 
once they have begun to yield. Under the spontaneous 
type belong, on the other hand, the few who appear to 
be non-suggestible and those who, while responding to 
suggestion, take a more or less original part by adding 
to the experiment or by waking themselves up. 

1 Comparing Group L, II. and III. with respect to 
this point, we find certain plain differentiations. To 
begin with, as might be expected, nearly all the persons 
who have experienced any of the mental or motor auto- 
matisms already described are " passives." Thirteen 
such persons were experimented upon, and of these 10 
clearly belonged to the passive type. ... A few cases 
were not accessible for purposes of experiment. The 
numbers experimented upon in the two groups werq 
respectively 14 and 12. All the persons in Group III. 
were experimented upon. The results are as follows : — 
In general, the line between Groups I. and II. coincides 
with that between the passive and the spontaneous 
types, though apparent exceptions exist, and though 
the interpretation of the facts is not equally clear in all 
cases. Of the 14 cases in Group I. (persons who ex- 
pected a striking transformation and experienced it), 
13 are of the passive type. Of the 13 persons in Group 
II. (expectation disappointed), 9 clearly belong to the 
spontaneous type, 1 is entirely passive, and 2 are open 
to some doubt. Of the 5 persons in Group III. (strik- 



EXPERIENCES PRECEDING CONVERSION 75 

ing experience, yet disappointed) 2 are passive and 3 
spontaneous.' 

These conclusions in regard to the close connection 
between temperament and the nature of religious ex- 
perience will stand us in good stead as we proceed, in 
helping us to understand the causes that underlie certain 
varieties of religious experience. We must be reminded 
constantly, however, that the whole process is a most 
intricate and complex one, and that no part of it is 
explicable, perhaps, by a single cause. As we shall see 
later, we are to look on conversion in part from the 
psychic side in the interplay of ideas. 



CHAPTER VI 

THE MENTAL AND BODILY AFFECTIONS IMMEDIATELY 
ACCOMPANYING CONVERSION 

We shall be spared a tabular presentation of the 
phenomena at the critical point in conversion. Those 
immediately before the turning-point are the same, 
practically, as those during the conviction period, but 
deepened and intensified ; and those momentarily 
following the change are apparently the same in 
quality as the post-conversion experiences which will 
be described later. Although more intense than the 
experiences leading up to conversion, and those during 
the succeeding period, they are, singularly, less fully 
and accurately described. Many things are happening, 
apparently, which, during the intenser emotion, evade 
critical analysis, even in the retrospect. We shall, 
accordingly, be concerned in this chapter with a 
description of some of the bolder outlines of the 
process involved in the crisis itself, as shown in the 
mental and bodily states. 

i. The Intensity of the Emotions. — Although the ex- 
periences are usually more intense than those we have 
already noticed, there are many exceptions to the rule. 
The cases would easily arrange themselves in a series 
from those in which there is almost no feeling accom- 
paniment to those, at the other extreme, in which there 
is intense struggle, the height of pain and joy, and vivid 
experiences quite out of the range of ordinary life. In 
a few instances definite changes seem to be worked out 
quietly somehow in the depths of one's nature without 

76 



THE MENTAL AND BODILY AFFECTIONS 77 

registering themselves in the emotions, and they are pre- 
sented ready-made to consciousness. M., 18. ' There 
was no emotion. It was a calm acceptance of the power 
of Christ to save.' M., 12. ' It was simply a jump for 
the better.' R, 22. ' I was reared in sceptical surround- 
ings. I prided myself that I was not deluded as others 
were. ... I felt as I rose to declare myself that a life of 
decisions was being given np in that one moment. I 
fully realised what it meant. Mine was just a decision 
made known to the world that I was going to try the 
other side. I didn't expect any change, from my cool 
standpoint, so experienced no extra happiness. It 
didn't seem supernatural, but about as unlikely to come 
out as it did as for miracles to go so decidedly opposite 
to the natural.' 

The cases shade off rapidly, however, into those 
which are wrought out with high emotion. M., 19. 
* Yearning for a sense of communion with Him, the 
words, " Seek ye the Lord while he may be found," came 
with thrilling power.' The incident is described as a 
1 tumultuous emotional incident.' A very few instances 
press so close to the emotional end of the series that 
one wonders to what extent they are pathological. 
M., 28. ' I fell on my face by a bench and tried to pray. 
Every time I would call on God something like a man's 
hand would strangle me by choking. I thought I 
would surely die if I did not get help. I made one 
final effort to call on God for mercy if I did strangle 
and die, and the last I remember at that time was fall- 
ing back on the ground with that same unseen hand on 
my throat. When I came to myself there was a crowd 
around praising God. The very heavens seemed to 
open and pour down rays of light and glory.' It would 
not be fair to estimate the average cases by either of 
the extremes. 

When the feelings attending conversion were collated 
and compared with those during the conviction period, 
they were found to be not only more intense, but to be 
^escribed more often in physical terms. There is evi- 

r 



78 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

dence that the whole nature is in a high state of tension, 
and that the senses are much more acute. The atten- 
tion is narrowed and fixed. The exact appearance of 
objects, the presentation of unusual sights, the exact 
words spoken and heard, the hymns sung, imaginary 
sounds and the like are frequently recalled with great 
minuteness. One person remembers the exact appear- 
ance of a pane of glass on which his eyes were resting 
at the time of conversion ; another recalls in detail the 
look of her garments. Prayers rang in the ears of one ; 
several heard voices of condemnation or assurance — 
sometimes it was an * inner voice/ again it was a real 
voice. M., 26. ' A voice said, " Believe in Me, for I am 
God." The voice came as if you were out there speak- 
ing.' The emotion is oftener in terms of feeling than 
sight or hearing, as of being bound to the seat, having a 
choking sensation in the throat, carrying a load on the 
shoulders, and the like. 

2. A Comparison of the Sexes in Emotional Experi- 
ences. — There is a difference between the sexes which 
deserves attention in regard to the vividness of the 
emotions. The males bear out what we found to be 
true during the conviction period in comparing the 
revival conversions with the others, in that at the time 
of the crisis likewise those converted at revivals have 
the more highly-coloured and, apparently, momentarily 
deeper-going experience. The females, however, at first 
sight, exactly contradict what we found in the last 
chapter. During conviction the disturbances were 
greater in the non-revival cases, while at the moment 
we are now considering, the critical point in conversion, 
it is the revival females who are thrown into the in- 
tensest emotion. There is one point in explanation of 
this unexpected difference which has been observed 
already, and if we read into it a little more carefully, it 
will show why the group of women (the non-revival) 
who suffer most pain during the conviction period are 
most free from it at the critical point of conversion. 
It is that women are more impressionable than men^ 



THE MENTAL AND BODILY AFFECTIONS 79 

and are controlled more by large, instinctive feelings. 
They accept more readily the stimulus of the ensemble^ 
when once it is offered, to carry them over difficulties. 
This agrees with the conclusions of Mr Havelock Ellis: 
1 Women respond to stimuli, psychic or physical, more 
readily than men. This general statement, though it 
may be modified or limited in certain respects, is un- 
contested/ l Resistance to conviction we saw to be less 
among the revival females. The strength of sermons, 
the rhythm of music, the encouragement of friends, the 
force of example, and all the impetus that comes from 
a religious service, often furnish the last stimulus needed 
to carry the restless, struggling life through its uncer- 
tainty and perplexity. F., 14. * The sermon seemed 
just meant for me.' F., 23. * I was wretched and dis- 
contented ; I thought it was of no use to try. The 
music appealed to me. While they were singing I was 
much moved, and rose to my feet/ Similar instances 
are numerous. 

The susceptibility to external influences which helps 
the woman through her difficulties, at the same time 
often renders the crisis intensely dramatic. In the 
presence of the strong forces of a revival she is often 
deeply moved. F., 16. 'As the choir began to sing I 
felt a queer feeling about my heart, which might be 
called a nervous tremor. There was a choking sen- 
sation in my throat, and every muscle in my body 
seemed to have received an electric shock. While in 
this state, hardly knowing what I did, I went forward. 
On the second night I was converted, and felt that God 
was pleased with me/ F., 12. 'On the impulse of the 
moment I went to the altar. After an hour of pleading 
and prayer, I felt something go from me, which seemed 
like a burden lifted, and something seemed floating 
nearer and nearer just above me. Suddenly I felt a 
touch as of the Divine One, and a voice said, "Thy 
sins are forgiven thee ; arise, go in peace." ' 

1 Havelock Ellis, Man and Woman t chap, xiii,, 'The Affectibility of 
Woman. ' 



8o THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

With the non-revival females and both classes of 
males, the crisis in conversion is not different in kind 
from the preceding experiences, but is a culmination 
and intensification of what we found during conviction. 
These three classes perhaps act more naturally and 
subjectively. 

There are doubtless many other reasons underlying 
the differences we have noticed. One that suggests 
itself is that women, by training and custom, are less 
capable of having vital experiences when in public 
gatherings. Many customs, such as those of dress, 
indicate that they expect to be watched. Perhaps 
they are more genuine when alone. One woman 
writes : — • I used to fight and fight during service to 
make it vital, and not to think about the way I might 
be impressing others. I had to struggle against being 
self-conscious/ 

The conclusions reached by Prof. Coe in the 
research quoted in the last chapter are in striking 
coincidence with those herein presented. He says : — 
'Men and women seem to differ, first of all, in respect 
to the focusing of religious changes into intense crises. 
I find that, whereas 82 per cent, of the men report 
having passed through such periods of awakening, only 
50 per cent, of the women make such report. Among 
the women religion appears more as an atmosphere ; 
it is something all-pervasive and taken for granted. 
With the men it reaches sharper definition, brings 
greater struggles, and tends more to climacteric 
periods. 

* The interpretation of this fact is not difficult ; it is 
found in two of the best-established distinctions between 
the mind of the male and that of the female. The first 
is the greater tendency of the female mind towards 
feeling. Mr Havelock Ellis remarks that, "As a rule, 
their affectibility protects women from the serious 
excesses of work or of play to which men are liable." 1 

1 Man and JVoman, 2nd edit. London, 1898, p. 312. See also 
chap. xiii. 



THE MENTAL AND BODILY AFFECTIONS 81 

In the second place, women are, on the whole, more 
suggestible than men. 1 Now, the more pervasive feeling 
and suggestibility are, the less likely is a constant sug- 
gestion and incitement like that derived from one's 
religious training to produce a marked crisis. This 
does not imply that men have more religious emotion 
than women, but only that they are more likely to resist 
religious tendencies up to the point of explosion. 2 

1 These results may be summarised and exhibited as 
follows : — 

Men. Women. t 

* Intellect more prominent; Sensibility more prominent; 

hence, more theoretical hence, more doubt of per- 

doubts. sonal status. 

* Emotion focused on definite Emotion more constant, more 

objects and at definite diffused, more gentle, 
periods ; hence, more tur- 
bulence. 

1 Less suggestible, resist more, More suggestible ; hence, yield 

have more intense struggle, more readily to ordinary 

and less fulfilment of ex- influences. Attain less in 

pectation. Attain more in solitude ; have less intense 

solitude. struggle, and more fulfil- 
ment of expectation.' 

3. Antithetical Feelings during the Crisis. — There are 
almost invariably two kinds of feelings, immediately 
successive in time, experienced at the time of conversion. 
The first are those of the conviction period magnified 
until the subject is brought to the last degree of dejec- 
tion, humility, confusion, uncertainty, sense of sinfulness, 
and the like. These directly give place to contrasted 
feelings such as joy, lightness of heart, clarified vision, 
exultation, the sense of free activity and harmony with 
God. The second group shade off gradually into the 
characteristic post-conversion experiences. Somewhere 
between these exactly opposite kinds of feeling there is 

1 Man and Woman > chap. xii. 

2 Mr Coe corrects at this point an erroneous conclusion in my article 
on * Religious Growth,' American Journal of Psychology, ix. 84, that adol- 
escent storm and stress experiences are more intense with women than 
men — a conclusion which has since been outgrown. 



82 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

a turning-point where the old life seems to cease and 
the new to begin. Just what happens at this point 
which often momentarily, as judged by the surface 
phenomena, brings such antitheses in the quality of life, 
is one of the most interesting problems in the study of 
conversion as well as one of the most difficult. At the 
present point we shall only try to gain such insight 
into it as is shown incidentally in a description of the 
feelings. 

The picture of the mental state at the turning-point is 
as if two lives, the present sinful one and the wished-for 
righteous one, were pressed together in intense opposi- 
tion, and were both struggling for possession of con- 
sciousness. The person is principally an observer in the 
struggle, but suffers from it, and is often torn between the 
contending forces until he is held between life and death. 
The ideal life finally, often momentarily, asserts itself, 
and there is freedom and joy and exuberance of spirit. 
In the days when it was customary to speak in more 
picturesque terms, the conflict was described as one 
between the prince of light and the prince of darkness, 
or as an evil spirit within one which must be cast out 
bodily. During the strife the person was a third party 
to the conflict. Although such a description gives a 
true picture of the feelings, it is singular that none of 
the respondents described the experience in allegorical 
language, but nearly always as a psychological event. 
The following is a representative instance: F., 18. 
1 After confirmation I had even greater discontent and 
dissatisfaction. I was praying all the way along. I 
went to a place in the country where a series of meet- 
ings was being held. The minister seemed inspired. 
I asked God through Jesus to forgive me everything. 
As I was praying all my sin loomed up before me, and 
was such a weight on my soul. It instantly gave place 
to joy. I was conscious that God had forgiven my sins. 
It was such a work of grace done in my soul. Every- 
thing seemed heavenly rather than earthly. All night 
I sang, " Praise God from whom all blessings flow." ' 



THE MENTAL AND BODILY AFFECTIONS S3 

These brief quotations fairly represent the first half 
of the process: M., 19. 'I mourned and wept and 
prayed, and stood trembling, with tears in my eyes.' 
M., 15. ' I prayed earnestly for pardon; I was willing 
to do anything for Christ. 1 M., 16. 'I felt the weight 
of sin as a burden on my mind/ M., 37. 'I didn't care 
whether I lived or died/ F., 14. 'My past life was 
a source of great regret to me. Conviction became so 
strong at 14 that I thought I would die that very 
summer if I did not get relief. I often worried and lost 
sleep. One evening, after retiring, a queer sensation 
came over me ; it was very dark, as though I was pass- 
ing through something, and God was right over my 
head. I trembled intensely, and became exhausted and 
helpless/ 

The general character of the second half of the 
process is illustrated by the following: M., 16. 'In- 
expressible joy sprang up in my soul/ M., 12. 'I saw 
a flood of light, and faces in the room seemed to reflect 
the bright light/ M., 15. 'While praying I seemed 
caught up into the presence of Jesus/ M., 19. 'I per- 
ceived a load go off/ F., 12. ' I had a sudden transport 
of joy ; I wished I might die right then and go to God/ 
M., 17. 'The emotion suddenly broke, and I was con- 
vinced of the atonement of my sins/ 

If we boil down the impressions from the preceding 
instances, the residue is the typical experience, which has 
three distinct features, viz., dejection and sadness, a point 
of transition, and, lastly, joy and peace. Were one to 
follow out the symbolism bound up in the words which 
represent the first step, ' de-jection/ ' de-pression/ 'a 
burden/ etc., it would suggest a descending line some- 
what as shown in a of Figure 5. 

Then follows a sharp turning-point, and a line going 
upwards, representing the feelings of joy, lightness, 
exuberance and elevation of spirit, which are contrasted 
with the first. 

Some such diagram seems to represent a composite 
picture of the crisis in all the cases. There are, how- 



g 4 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

ever, almost as many variations on it as there are cases 
studied. Some of them deserve attention. In the first 
place, the turning-point is not always momentary. In 
the figure, instead of the acute angle between a and b> 
there would be a curved line in some instances, as c, d. 
In others we should have simply a turning-point, as 
between e and /. This quotation illustrates: M., 12. 
' I felt the condemnation of God passed upon me as on 
all who refuse to accept Christ as their Saviour. After 
a long struggle to evade the grace of God, I finally 




Figure 5. — Diagram representing the feelings at the time of conversion. 

yielded. The Lord did not give me the evidence of my 
acceptance with Him so manifestly that night as He did 
the next morning as I was walking through the woods 
alone. I shall never forget the sweet peace of soul 

I then experienced/ 

Another variation from the general type is that 
these two kinds of feeling are often completely mingled 
and blended : * M., 75. ' I was despondent ; I went out 
of doors and cried; I felt my heart lifting, and couldn't 
sit still.' F., 12. ' I felt sad over my sins, yet an in- 
expressible feeling of gladness came over me/ F., 19. 

I I read books and reflected, and saw my lack. I knelt 
and prayed, putting happiness into every breath, and 
beauty into everything/ It is not infrequent that the 
post-conversion feelings are anticipated during the con- 
viction period by some partial momentary sense of joy 
or vision of the new life. It is equally true that during 
the post-conversion period there are often distinct echoes 
of the conviction stage, shown in a sense of heightened 



THE MENTAL AND BODILY AFFECTIONS 85 

responsibility, temporary disappointment, and a feeling 
that the change of heart has not been complete. 

4. Two Types of Conversion. — An analysis of the 
cases from a fresh standpoint shows two fairly distinct 
types of conversion. They may be characterised re- 
spectively as escape from sin and spiritual illumination. 
The first type, escape from sin, is more nearly akin to 
breaking a habit. It is characteristic of all the older 
persons studied, and of all, regardless of age, who have 
led wayward lives. It is connected with the feeling of 
sinfulness proper, in which the mental state is negative, 
and attended by dejection and self-abnegation. The 
second type, which we have inadequately termed 
spiritual illumination, seems to be the normal — at any 
rate, the most frequent — adolescent experience. It 
involves a struggle after larger life, and is largely 
positive, although often accompanied by uncertainty 
and distress. After praying, and struggling and striv- 
ing, the light dawns, new insight is attained, and there 
is joy and a sense of freedom in the new possession. 
This latter type is attended, to be sure, with much the 
same feelings just before the crisis as is the escape from 
sin, but in this case they are mere incidents to the 
central fact that the new insight is difficult to attain. 
There is the same juxtaposition in both instances of 
two inharmonious lives, the old and the new. In the 
escape from sin the conflict is between a life that has 
been lived — a sinful, habitual life — and the life of 
righteousness ; while in the other type the conflict is 
between a life that is not — an incomplete, imperfect, 
aspiring self — and the life which is to blossom out and 
be realised. 

Heretofore we have not distinguished between the 
conviction feelings from this point of view, although 
some such distinction is hinted in the grouping in 
Table VIII. on p. 59. But if we classify the con- 
viction experiences anew, we find them falling into 
two groups which we may call the sense of sin, on the 
one hand, and the feeling of incompleteness, on the other. 



86 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

The sense of sin shows itself as a feeling of wretched- 
ness, heaviness, helplessness, weariness, sensitiveness 
and resistance, separation from friends and God, fear, 
resentment, and so on — feelings which are followed 
after the crisis by joy, peace, rest, lightness of heart, 
oneness with others and God, love, exuberance of spirits, 
sense of free activity, and the like. The feelings are 
reduced to the last degree of tension, and then recoil; 
are pent up, and suddenly burst; life appears to force 
itself to the farthest extreme in a given direction, 
and then to break into free activity in another. The 
feeling of imperfection or incompleteness has slightly 
different accompaniments. There is uncertainty, unrest, 
mistiness, a dazed feeling, distress, effort, struggle toward 
an indefinite something, longing for something out of 
reach, etc., which is followed by peace, happiness, 
a sense of harmony, a clearing away, a flash of light, 
freedom, entrance into new life, and so on. Perhaps the 
purest type of * escape from sin' is in the case of the 
conversion of a drunkard, such as is found in the auto- 
biography of John B. Gough or H. H. Hadley, or other 
records of a similar nature. The following account 
given by the superintendent of a rescue mission is a 
fair example of this group. M., 37. 'By 12 I found 
the devil in me, leading me to do wrong. I began 
drinking at 20. By 26 rum got the upper hand. I was 
robbed of my manhood, found myself homeless and 
an outcast. I couldn't work, being broken up with 
nervousness. I had three months of severe struggle. 
My condition brought up the recollection of home, and 
what I might have been. I was a misery to myself and 
everybody else. I went to a city mission. That night, 
in my room, in despair, I struggled in prayer. I said, 
"If there is a God, save me from this life ! " I didn't 
care whether I lived or died. While I was struggling 
in prayer I felt a peace within. A calm came over me.' 
Here is the effect of actual sinfulness, which has become 
so ingrained as completely to overmaster one's nature; 
a life burned out and brought face to face with physical 



THE MENTAL AND BODILY AFFECTIONS 87 

ruin ; the opposition between the hopeless present and 
an ideal ; and the dawning of new life when there is 
complete self-effacement. 

The other type, ' spiritual illumination/ presents a 
slightly different picture. The person is not thrown 
back in the same way into helplessness under habitual 
sin. There is more of a reaching out, or, on the other 
hand, an extreme sense of unworthiness and imperfec- 
tion, in which the longing for the unattained is strongly 
implied. R, 15. * I prayed day after day, struggling 
for light/ F., 10. 'The chief trouble was I did not 
feel myself so great a sinner as I thought I ought.' 
R, 16. ' I felt the need of a religion. I read a certain 
book and thought over it. I was beginning to despair.' 
M., 23. ' I prayed and cried to God for help. I wandered 
four years, seeking rest. I went to many a priest for 
comfort/ R, 18. 'I felt a dissatisfaction with my 
way, which lasted several years. It wasn't guilt. I 
didn't know what I wanted. I had such a desire to 
be delivered from sin.' 

The feelings which follow the dawn of new life are 
slightly different from those which follow the escape 
from sin. R, 15. ' While struggling in prayer, peace 
came to me through the darkness.' R, 10. 'I came 
to have a feeling as I do now when a thing is right.' 
R, — . 'New light seemed to dawn on me.' M., 23. 
1 When all outward help failed, a voice came which 
said, " There is one, even Christ Jesus, can speak 
to thy condition " ; and when I heard it, my heart did 
leap for joy.' R, 13. 'I could fairly see the Gospel 
truths which had been misty.' 

Something like the trend of feelings during con- 
version and the distinction between the two types 
is shown graphically in Figure 6. 

No doubt, the nature of conversion as usually con- 
ceived is of the type we have called the ' escape from 
sin/ represented by the heavy line in the figure. It is 
important to note, however, that if the cases we are 
studying are representative, that type of conversion which 



88 



THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 



is accompanied by the feeling of incompleteness is more 
common than that which is accompanied by the sense of 
sin. Rarely does either type exist perfectly pure, but 
each usually savours to some degree of the other. 




AFTER 



PRECEDING 



Figure 6. — Illustrating roughly the mental processses at conversion^ 
as shown by the feeling accompaniments. 

Frequently they are so blended as to be indistinguish- 
able. Of those cases which belong rather distinctly 
to one or the other type, there seem to be about six 
times as many which follow the sense of incompleteness 
as the escape from sin. There are more of this type in 
both sexes, and in both revival and non-revival groups. 
It is the rule for the non-revival females to belong to it. 
If our analysis is correct, it raises some vital 
questions as to the help demanded by persons in 
spiritual difficulty. Doubtless, when there has been 
waywardness, and one has grown habitually sinful, 
the most efficacious way of rescue is to picture the fate 
of continuance in sin, to throw the person back on 
himself, to lead him to see the blackness of sin as 
contrasted with the beauty of holiness, and to make the 
break unavoidable, sharp and final ; but to use the 
same methods with all alike, including the youth who 
is seeking light, is doubtful wisdom. It may be that 
in this case also it is important in many instances to 
bring into sharp contrast the ideal life and the present 
imperfect one. Where there is thoughtlessness, it may 
be important to set forth, as one writer says, ' the 



THE MENTAL AND BODILY AFFECTIONS 89 

awful majesty of the moral law.' When one is seriously 
struggling for light, however, when the spiritual seed 
is disturbing the clod and preparing to grow, we 
may do violence to it by drastic measures. We 
shall see evidence in a later chapter that such is 
often the case, and that persons are often thrown adrift 
by lack of wisdom on the part of spiritual leaders in 
meeting individual needs. 

A question of no little interest is what are the 
life-processes which underlie these diverse manifes- 
tations of feeling which we have described ? How are 
two kinds of feeling thrown into sharp opposition ? 
What is happening when the change is made from one 
type of life to another ? We shall be able to answer 
more adequately when we have the description of the 
process before us as the respondents believe it to have 
occurred. 



CHAPTER VII 

IN WHAT CONVERSION CONSISTS 

JUST what happens at the point of transition in con- 
version is the part of it which, above all others, escapes 
analysis by the respondents. Nearly all answered the 
question, ' In what did conversion consist ? ' in some 
way or other, and, while they were usually not able to 
compass the process and set it forth in words, there 
was enough talking around the subject, here and there, 
to give occasional glimpses of the mental states and 
processes at the crucial point in conversion. A few had 
a distinct feeling of something taking place in their 
natures. Two persons illustrated graphically the pro- 
cess by drawing lines. In both, conversion was pictured 
by rapidly ascending curves. It is clear that the greater 
part of the change takes place in the region of the 
sub-conscious. We shall have to dredge for the gem 
of knowledge, even if we acknowledge at last that it 
escaped us. The inspiring task before us is to take 
the surface phenomena which can be put into words by 
the subjects, and let them lead us, if they will, into the 
processes which are going on beneath; to take the 
scattered bits of experience which appeal to conscious- 
ness, and to fill in some of the gaps and make the 
picture somewhat more complete, even if it remains 
extremely imperfect and inadequate. 

When the states and processes that were thought to 
be central were analysed and collated, they formed 
seven classes, instances of which are given below : — 

I. Yielding, self- surrender, breaking pride, etc. — 
90 



IN WHAT CONVERSION CONSISTS 91 

M., 15. 'I finally gave up trying to resist.' M., 18. 'I 
wanted to be a lawyer, and was not willing to do the 
work God called me to do. After much prayer I 
surrendered completely, and had the assurance that I 
was accepted.' R, 13. ' I knew it would be best for me, 
but there were some things I could not give up. When 
relief came, all my pride was gone.' F., 17. 'I had said 
I would not give up ; when my will was broken, it was 
all over/ M., 17. ' I simply said, " Lord, I have done all 
I can, I leave the whole matter with Thee." Im- 
mediately, like a flash of light, there came to me a great 
peace/ It is a common phenomenon that when the 
person surrenders his or her will, the new life suddenly 
springs up. When the personal will ceases, the larger 
will comes in. 

2. Determination, exercise of will, etc. — M., 19. ' I 
determined to yield my heart and life to God's service/ 
R, 13. 'One day I made up my mind I would be for 
Christ always/ R, 18. ' I made up my mind to be a 
Christian, regardless of feeling/ M., 18. 'It was de- 
ciding for the sake of doing right and influencing others/ 
The cases are interesting in which there is a ' determina- 
tion to yield/ an experience that is halfway between 
two groups, the first and second, which are apparently 
contradictory. 

3. Forgiveness. — R, 13. ' I felt the wrath of God 
resting on me. I called on Him for aid and felt my sins 
forgiven/ F, 16. ' I felt God's forgiveness so distinctly/ 
M., 15. ' I seemed to hear Jesus speak words of for- 
giveness (a purely mental experience)/ M., 15. 
'Gradually the sense came over me that I had 
done my part and God was willing to do His, and 
that He was not angry with me ; I had a sense of sins 
forgiven/ 

4. God's help, or presence of some outside power 
(generally not involving forgiveness). — M., 19. 'By 
God's special grace and help I sought peace publicly 
and found it/ M., 27. ' I saw the words, " Without 
blood there is no remission," and the Holy Spirit sealed 



92 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

them to my heart/ M , 15. ' I felt sure I had received 
the Holy Spirit/ 

5. Public confession. — Often after the battle has 
been fought out on the plane of conscience or reason, 
the crucial thing in the feeling of certain persons yet 
remains, viz., making it known to the world. The 
social sanction is a surprisingly strong factor in the 
change. M., 15. 'I did feel that in taking this public 
step I had crossed the Rubicon/ M., 13. 'I held up 
my hand in prayer-meeting as a profession of faith in 
Christ/ R, — . ' I rose for prayer and felt relieved/ 
M., 12. ' At the call for those who wished prayer, I was 
immediately on my feet, and it seemed as if a great 
burden had been removed.' Public confession seems 
often closely akin to forgiveness and the sense of 
harmony with God, the sanction of the church and the 
approval of friends standing for the more abstract 
relation. It is also closely related to breaking pride 
and self-surrender. 

6. Spontaneous awakening. — This class consists, in 
the purest instances, of what in the last chapter was 
termed 'spiritual illumination/ These are cases in 
which the new life bursts forth without any apparent 
immediate adequate cause. M., 22. * I got to attending 
revivals, and thought much over my condition and 
how to know I was saved. Everything depended on 
"Him that cometh unto me," etc.; " cometh " was the 
pivotal word. One evening while walking along the 
road it came to me that it was all right now/ M., 1 1. 
, After failing of relief at revival, I was singing songs by 
myself at home. After I got through singing, I sat and 
thought, " Why, God does forgive me, and if I live right 
He will help me.'" M., 37. * I had been a drunkard for 
years and struggled against my better sensibilities. . . . 
I attended a city mission. ... I read the Bible and prayed 
far into the night. Then I went to sleep, and during the 
night the thing had cleared itself up in my mind, and I 
was ready to live or die by it/ F., 13. ' For four years 
I had wanted to be a Christian, but could not feel my 



IN WHAT CONVERSION CONSISTS 93 

sins forgiven. One morning, sitting in my room reading, 
peace just seemed to come, and I was happy indeed/ 
M., 14. ' I cannot now designate any external cause 
of my conversion. I wanted to be a Christian, and 
without speaking to anyone about it, prayed for for- 
giveness. Relief came as a sense of peace and for- 
giveness. My religious life seemed to come into being 
at that moment. It came without any thought or act 
of my own/ Such cases have probably some direct 
antecedent in thought or action which temporarily fades 
away and is revived in the finished result. 

7. Feeling of oneness with God (or with friends). — 
M., 1 5. * I felt my sins forgiven, and for the first time in 
my life I really enjoyed a prayer-meeting. I felt I had 
something in common with the church members who 
spoke to me. I enjoyed speaking to them and felt at 
rights with God.' F., 12. 'The witness of the Spirit 
that I was a child of God's was very clear/ M., 17. ' It 
was a sudden awakening, so I could say in my heart, 
"Our father in heaven/" M., 14. 'I knelt and prayed; 
I seemed immersed for the moment in a larger being as 
though it had closed about me; I felt sure I had re- 
ceived the Holy Spirit/ The idea of oneness is also 
involved in 'forgiveness/ It runs likewise at one point 
into ' public confession/ from the fact that the sense of 
oneness is often only the condition of coming into har- 
monious relationship with the social order. The quota- 
tions above are given to show how they form a series 
from those in which the sense of oneness is concrete and 
personal, to those in which it is abstract and spiritual. 

The relative frequency of the various elements 
thought to be central is given in Table XI. The same 
person often mentioned facts which came under two or 
more of the seven headings. The percentages were 
distributed so that the sum of each column gives 
100 per cent. The figures do not .show, therefore, the 
per cent, of cases in which each element enters, but the 
relative prominence of the various classes. In the table 
the different groups are placed in the order of their 



94 



THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 



prominence. That quality of conversion in which the 
new life bursts forth spontaneously is by far the most 
common. The conscious exercise of will and self- 



That in which Conversion Consists. 



Spontaneous Awakening .... 

Forgiveness 

Public Confession ..... 
Sense of Oneness (with God, friends, etc.) . 
Self-Surrender ...... 

Determination 

Divine $id • 



Female. 


Male. 


2 4 


23 


15 


19 


17 


13 


13 


16 


14 


II 


IO 


8 


7 


10 



Total. 



24 
16 
16 
14 
13 
9 
8 



Table XI. — Showing the relative frequency of certain things regarded as 
central in conversion* 

surrender are at the small end of the list. The last 
group, divine aid, would have been much larger, had the 
cases not been excluded in which the sense of forgive- 
ness was the distinctive feature, although they often 
clearly imply divine intervention. 

A Comparison of the Sexes. — When we inquire at this 
point for the likenesses and differences between the 
experiences of females and males, the matter has be- 
come complicated. In some respects there is an agree- 
ment with what we have already found. For example, 
public confession is greater among females ; they were 
found before to be more influenced by surroundings. 
The most patent fact, however, is that at the time oj 
conversion the sexes, which during the convictioit period 
differed widely \ are reduced more nearly to the same level. 
The two columns of per cents, in Table XI. show no 
very striking contrasts. The similarity is yet more 
apparent in Table XII. following, in which the revival 
and non-revival cases are compared. The relation of 
these classes is generally about the same for both sexes. 
For example, determination is less among the revival 
females than among the non-revival ; it is also less 
among the revival males. During the conviction period. 



IN WHAT CONVERSION CONSISTS 95 

on the contrary, the females and males were usually 
contradictory. 

In some respects Table XI. seems exactly to contra- 
dict our previous results. Determination, the feeling of 
expenditure of effort, is greater among females, instead 
of less; self-surrender is greater also among females, 
although there was clearly greater wilfulness and ten- 
dency to resist conviction up to this point among the 
males. On the other hand, the sense of oneness with 
God, which is largely a feeling, is more frequent among 
the males, who have heretofore manifested relatively 
less feeling. The spontaneous bursting forth of new 
life is likewise about as common among males. 

If we look carefully, however, we find these apparent 
anomalies falling in line with our previous analysis. 
Conversion for males is a more violent incident than for 
females^ and more sudden. The man prepares for it 
longer (the conviction 4 period is of longer duration), 
weighs the possibilities, resists the forces which oppose 
his will, and when they become irresistible, the change 
is cataclysmic. But, as we have already found, height 
of feeling is at the expense of conscious will. At the 
moment of the crisis, accordingly, the conscious expen- 
diture of effort, as well as the relaxation of it, are less 
appreciated. At the same time, feeling, which is inci- 
dental to the intense experience, is vivid in conscious- 
ness. It will be noticed, too, that the intenser experience 
is accompanied by a tendency to objectify it, as is shown 
in the fact that forgiveness and divine aid are greater 
among males. At the moment of conversion there is 
less heat among the females, and a greater ability to get 
the experience in terms of consciousness. The worth 
of this explanation is emphasised by observing that, in 
the following table, determination, in which emotion is 
less marked, and also oneness with God are greater with 
both sexes in the non-revival class. 

The foregoing facts are in line with other bits of 
knowledge in regard to the sexes. The life of the 
female is more organic, more of one piece. She is 



9 6 



THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 



usually recognised as being the conserving element in 
racial transmission. As in racial life, so in individual 
growth there seems to be more continuity and evenness 
in the stream of her life. There is an interesting 
analogy also on the physical side to this aspect of 
religious growth. In his study of puberty, Dr Bierent 
says (translating freely), ' If that stage (puberty) marks 
an acute and violent crisis among males, among females 
it is only an agitation. In other words, we say of a 
girl that her puberty reaches its culmination ; of a boy, 
that his puberty becomes a paroxysm/ l 

A Comparison of the Revival Cases with the Others. 

Some of the essential differences between the revival 
and non-revival cases have been pointed out in the pre- 
ceding section. Self-surrender, forgiveness and public 
confession are, as we should expect, greater in the 
revival cases. It should be noted that in the non- 
revival conversions determination and spontaneous 
awakening are both greater. We shall see later that 
they may be closely connected. 







Female. 


Male. 


Both. 


Consists. 


Revival. 


Non- 
Revival. 


Revival. 


Non- 
Revival. 


Revival. 


Non- 
Revival. 


Spontaneous Awaken 

ing . > . 
Determination . 
Sense of Oneness 
Divine Aid . . 
Self-Surrender . 
Forgiveness 
Public Confession 




22 

6 

12 

8 
14 
19 
19 


27 

15 
16 

5 
14 

IO 

13 


21 

5 
II 

6 

24 
19 


26 
II 
21 
15 

7 

13 
7 


21 
6 
12 

7 

14 
21 

19 


27 

13 
18 

9 
II 
II 
II 



Table XII. — Comparing the revival and non-revival cases in regard to 
certain elements looked upon as central in conversion. 



1 Ldon Bierent, La Puberty Tar is, 1896, p. 40. 



IN WHAT CONVERSION CONSISTS 



97 



The Relation between the Various Conviction States and 
the Essential Elements at the Crisis in Conversion. 

Our purpose now is to ascertain what particular 
conviction-experience each of these groups we are 
studying is most likely to follow. In Table XIII. we 
have selected six of the characteristic conviction pheno- 
mena. These appear at the top of the table. Below 
are the numbers showing the frequency with which 
each of them is followed by any or all of the seven 
types of experience during the crisis. (Incomplete 
records and doubtful cases are omitted.) We shall be 





Passive Temperament. 


Active Temperament. 




w 

O 

V) 

c 




bX) ° • 
d w 

W 6 


c 

8.2 

.52 G 

'/i O 

2 


« 
Pi — 


2£ 


Spontaneous Awaken- 














ing follows . 


28 


26 


7 


5 


21 


21 


Forgiveness follows 


35 


22 


9 


13 


24 


IO 


Public Confession ,, 


20 


15 


8 


9 


8 


12 


Oneness with God ,, 


27 


19 


7 


7 


21 


15 


Self- Surrender ,, 


17 


21 


7 


14 


15 


16 


Determination ,, 


6 


9 


1 


6 


2 


9 


Divine Aid ,, 


14 


11 


7 


4 


10 


4 



Table XIII. — Showing the relation between certain conviction experiences 
and the elements thought to be central at the point of transition. 

concerned primarily with the relative magnitude of 
the numbers in the vertical columns. If all the groups 
were equally characteristic of the conviction period, or 
of the crisis, we could interpret both the horizontal and 
vertical columns. Since the groups are not equally 
prominent, this would clearly be unfair. We can say 
with fairness, however, that the sense of sin, for example, 
inasmuch as it exists as a common experience before 



98 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

conversion, is equally liable to show itself in any of the 
seven types of the conversion phenomena, unless there 
is some intrinsic reason why it should break forth in a 
particular one. The question is, simply, Given any 
experience before conversion, the sense of sin, for 
example, what is most likely to follow at the point 
of conversion ? Looking at this column, we see, for 
instance, that forgiveness is the most liable to result 
and determination the least. It will simplify our dis- 
cussion if we consider the first three columns together, 
in which a passive temperament is expressed, and some- 
what by themselves the last three, which show more 
clearly an element of will. 

The first three columns give evidence, in the first 
place, that the feeling of expenditure of effort at the 
point of conversion is small, as is shown by the relative 
smallness of the numbers after ' determination.' On the 
contrary, self-surrender, which involves the giving up of 
personal will, is much more frequent ; and it should be 
borne in mind that an element of self-surrender is con- 
tained also in forgiveness. Forgiveness, which is in 
general the most prominent sequence of these three states, 
implies a reliance on an external means of escape. This 
is true, likewise, of ' divine aid.' From the frequency of 
forgiveness, one sees that the sin-sense is uppermost in 
conversion. Spontaneous awakening is second in im- 
portance. It shows, perhaps, a recoil from the tension 
of feeling. The natural result of the escape from sin, 
and of estrangement, which means seclusion, is the sense 
of oneness with God. 

The last three columns emphasise the same points, 
and bring forward some others. One might expect, in 
the sequence of these types which involve an active 
temperament, that determination would be strong like- 
wise during the crisis ; but, on the contrary, it is the 
smallest of all the groups, while, as before, self-surrender 
is prominent. It is remarkable that in these three 
columns in which the element of will is present, self- 
surrender is much more prominent than in the preceding. 



IN WHAT CONVERSION CONSISTS 99 

three. In the columns we are now considering it is 
evident that self-surrender is important, whether one's 
effort is against the new life, as in resistance to convic- 
tion, or toward it, as in prayer and personal effort. 
That is, at the crisis in conversion, no matter whether or 
not the will has been definitely exercised, and regardless of- 
the direction in which it has been exercised, it is an im- 
portant step toward spiritual regeneration that the personal 
will be given up. Especially is this true when there is 
resistance to conviction, after which self-surrender and 
forgiveness stand much above any of the other groups. 
Forgiveness is naturally the most prominent item follow- 
ing ' prayer/ with the sense of oneness also frequent. It 
should be noted that divine aid is smaller in these three 
columns than in the last three. 

We have in the foregoing only half the picture of 
the effect of the will. The purest result would be found 
in the last column, personal effort, striving in the direc- 
tion of the new life. In this column spontaneous 
awakening is the most frequent item. It is also next to 
the most frequent after prayer. If this is true, it appears 
that the will is not valueless in the process of conversion, 
as we were about to conclude, but, on the contrary, it may 
be of the first importance. After the person has striven 
in the direction of the new life, it would seem that it 
then tends to come of itself. ' God helps them who help 
themselves.' It may be that the effort expended is one 
direct cause of the otherwise unaccountable awakening. 
We shall have occasion in the next chapter to see in 
what way effects work themselves out beneath the surface 
in human nature. It is interesting to notice the con- 
trast to the above in the column under resistance to 
conviction, in which spontaneous awakenings, instead of 
being the rule, are the exception. The effort must be 
in the direction of the new life and not against it, if the 
new life is to spring up of itself; otherwise the road lies 
through self-surrender and forgiveness. The sense of 
oneness is relatively absent after resistance, instead of 
frequent, as in conversions which follow striving toward 



too THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

the new life. Our discussion seems to settle down to 
this : there are two essential aspects of conversion, that in 
which there is self- surrender and forgiveness, accompanied 
by a sense of harmony with God ; and that in which the 
new life bursts forth spontaneously as the natural recoil from 
the sense of sin, or as the result of a previous act of the will 
in striving toward righteousness. 

In turning away now for a time from the evidence 
from the records themselves of what happens at the 
moment of conversion, the central impression is that 
our goal has not been compassed ; that at best we have 
hints of it, but that the ' explanation ' of the process has 
escaped us. We shall be contented largely at last with 
a description of the process, which we shall attempt when 
all the facts are before us. In the next chapter we shall 
consider more in detail the element of spontaneity in- 
volved in conversion. 



CHAPTER VIII 

THE CONSCIOUS AND SUB-CONSCIOUS ELEMENTS 
IN CONVERSION 

I. The Conscious Element Involved. — In this chapter we 
may add one more to the many shades of meaning of 
the term ' conscious.' We shall use the word in a very 
general, though fairly consistent way, to stand for the 
undifferentiated centre at which intellection and volition 
separate. It represents an element of purpose, insight 
and choice, as distinguished from mere response to 
environment, reaction to stimuli and blind determina- 
tion. The question is not simply how much of conver- 
sion is willed, but how much of the process as it is being 
wrought out rises into consciousness ; and, on the other 
hand, is there evidence that part of the process is worked 
out automatically by the nervous system, or, as Oliver 
Wendell Holmes says, by 'a creating and informing 
spirit which is with us and not of us.' 

There are evidences of the presence of both conscious 
self-direction and automatism in conversion. Among 
the evidences of the latter are the apparent smallness 
of the intellectual factor among the conscious motives 
to conversion, and also of the volitional element at the 
time of the change. For example, during the conviction 
period, conscious following out of teaching was mentioned 
in only 10 per cent, of the cases, and response to a 
moral ideal in only 17 per. cent. ; while imitation and 
social pressure were recognised in 32 per cent, of them. 
We have just seen that the conscious exercise of will 
was rarely mentioned as being central at the time of 

101 



io2 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

conversion. That an apparently spontaneous awaken- 
ing was found to be the prominent factor in the change, 
increases the evidence that the process is automatic. 
Public confession may mean that the subject is driven 
by surroundings. The sense of forgiveness and that of 
oneness with God also generally indicate that the ex- 
perience is worked out in the sphere of feeling. There 
are, however, many evidences of the presence of con- 
scious purpose. It is often mentioned as a recognised 
factor. Besides, the cases show that public confession 
is often made in spite of adverse surroundings. Self- 
surrender generally means that the subject is drawn 
between two possible courses, and must decide between 
them. The persistent struggle often shown during con- 
viction, sometimes toward a definite end and sometimes 
toward a dimly-defined one, indicates the presence, per- 
haps, of incipient ideation and volition. 

In order to arrive at an estimate of the conscious 
concomitant, the cases were studied through with that 
alone in view. The result of it is the most uncertain of 
all the attempts at tabulation. It necessitates evaluation 
at every point, so that the source of error is very great. 
The table following, accordingly, has less value than 
those that have preceded. A valuable check on the 
possibility of such evaluation was that another person 
worked through the cases and obtained practically the 
same results as those of the writer. The cases were 
separated into five classes, as determined by the pro- 
minence of the conscious element; first, the ones in which 
it is absent, or nearly so — these are largely cases of 
imitation, adolescent ferment, and the like; second, 
those in which it is small ; third, those in which the 
conscious and automatic forces are about evenly balanced ; 
fourth, in which there was apparently a predominance 
of insight, and of moving along a clearly-marked course ; 
and lastly, those in which the conscious element seems 
without much doubt to be the determining factor. The 
following instances of each class will give an idea of the 
evaluation : — 



CONSCIOUS AND SUB-CONSCIOUS ELEMENTS 103 

(1.) M., 15. ' It began largely as imitation; a friend 
told me I was not free from liability to divine dis- 
pleasure/ F., 8. ' At camp meeting I went to the altar 
with twenty others ; in the uncertainty at the altar I 
repeated after the leader, " I believe Him." I knew I 
was converted ; and afterwards I had great comfort 
in Bible reading and prayer, and in times of anxiety/ 

(2.) F., 11. ' From my earliest days I had wanted 
to be a Christian ; I felt desire, unrest and fear. Many 
were going forward at the revival ; that made it easy 
for me. I made confession by speaking in meeting, 
and felt the peace of God/ M., 14. ' I was influenced 
by the example of father and mother ; besides this, 
I had a sense of duty. I was afraid of being lost, and 
felt that I was not good enough to become a Christian. 
I broke my pride and made public confession/ 

(3.) F., 16. 'I became deeply convicted of sin; for 
three weeks I spent much time in prayer, and had an 
awful sense of helplessness. Relief came during a 
revival. I made up my mind the Sunday before that 
I would rise for prayer ; I think it came through my 
own thought and deliberate choice/ F., 14. ' I thought 
a great deal about the after life, and knew I must de- 
cide; I had a sort of depressed feeling, and I engaged 
in prayer. Three days after making up my mind, 
relief came by feeling God's forgiveness/ 

(4.) F., 14. ' I had an unsatisfied feeling, and a 
craving for a higher life; I fought and struggled in 
prayer to get the feeling that God was with me ; with 
the greatest effort I endeavoured to get some glimpses 
of light. While struggling for light, peace came to me 
through the darkness, and I felt at rest/ M., 18. 'I 
wanted to make the most possible out of life and to 
exert the right influence over my pupils and over 
young people; it was also a divine instinct, gratitude 
for blessings received, that led me to make a personal 
choice. I decided the matter at home that I would 
not only be partly right, but wholly right/ 

(5.) F., 18. 'The change was purely in making up 



104 



THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 



my mind that I would live as Christ would have me, 
whether certain feelings came or not I felt happy 
and satisfied/ M., 12. * It seemed only deliberate choice 
gradually growing and reaching its climax at con- 
version. The duty I owe to Christ, who had done so 
much for me, was the chief factor. My conversion was 
just a jump for the better in the direction of the gradual 
growth which had preceded.' 

According to the above standard of classification, 
the cases resulted as shown in Table XII I A. 

It is seen from the table that there are a few cases 
only in which the conscious element is either absent 
or apparently the principal determining factor in the 
change. 





Male. 


Female. 


Conscious Element. 


Per Cent. 
of whole 
Number. 


Average 
Age. 


Per Cent, 
of whole 
Number. 


Average 
Age. 


Conscious Element 

Absent .... 
Less than unconscious . 
Equal to unconscious 
Greater than unconscious 
Entirely dominant . 
(or nearly so) 


2 
34 
36 
26 

2 


II 

136 

l6.2 

174 
18 


19 

42 

19 
17 

3 


1 1.8 

13-2 
14.6 
154 
17 



Table XI 1 1 a. — Showing the result of an attempt to estimate the degj-ee 
of the conscious element present in conversions. 



They arrange themselves in a series from the almost 
wholly externally determined conversions, to those 
which come from clear insight, and which are con- 
trolled largely by subjective forces. The males form 
a pretty regular series, there being about the same 
number in which the conscious element is largely 
present and largely absent, and they culminate at the 
point where the conscious and unconscious elements 
are equally commingled. The females fall more on 



CONSCIOUS AND SUB-CONSCIOUS ELEMENTS 105 

the side of the automatic. Nineteen per cent, of the 
females, as against 2 per cent, of males, belong to 
the class in which the conscious element is absent. 
The most frequent group is the second, in which the 
conscious accompaniment is somewhat small. The 
point of special interest is that most of the cases fall 
between the extremes, that is, in conversion the con- 
scions and unconscious forces rarely exist separately ', but 
usually act together and interact on each other. 

Age has much to do with the place in the series 
into which any case will fall. It will be noticed in 
the table that the average age of both males and 
females increases gradually with the increase of the 
conscious concomitant, showing again that spiritual 
awakenings in different stages of life doubtless have a 
very different content. 

2. The Unconscious or Automatic Element. — The im- 
portance of the conscious element is not simply in its 
presence immediately at conversion. Without excep- 
tion, the cases studied, no matter how suddenly the new 
life bursts forth, have antecedents in thought or action 
that appear to lead up directly to the phenomenon of 
conversion. The picture seems to be that of a flow 
of unconscious life rising now and then into conscious 
will, which, in turn, sets going new forces that readjust 
the sum of the old thoughts and feelings and actions. 
Whether the flow of physiological processes first gives 
rise to the thought product, or whether the incipient 
conversion holds a causal relation to the flash of new 
life and activity, cannot be determined. So much is 
clear, that before and during conversion the two things 
go together and interact upon each other. The whole 
conviction period seems to be a disturbance in the 
automatic, habitual processes caused by the presence 
of an incipient, but still dim and confused idea. 
Life is continually prodded by forces from without. 
Reverses in life, death, the example of a beautiful 
personality, ideas from other people, the demands of 
established institutions, and the like, are frequently 



io6 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

mentioned as among the things which shake life from 
its self-content, and lead it into a recognition of a 
larger world than its own. 

Although we have seen the spontaneous-awakening 
type of conversion to be the most frequent, there is not a 
single instance of this type in which there have not been 
some antecedents in thought or action which may be re- 
garded as l causes ' leading toward the awakening. The 
way in which a thought or an experience leaves its 
impress and works itself out in the sphere of the sub- 
conscious is best shown by some typical cases. F., — . 
* A year before my conversion I had been to the altar, 
but felt no better ; I wasn't ready to become a Christian. 
The following year, during revivals, I felt more in 
earnest than ever before. I went to the altar two 
nights in succession ; I went in spite of my friends. 
A friend came and spoke to me, and it came over me 
like a flash of lightning that I was saved. I remember 
distinctly what different persons said to me afterwards.' 
Here is shown an effort by an unripe nature, a year 
of perseverance, and at last, under favourable surround- 
ings, the thing sought for coming like a flash. The 
mental tension at the time of conversion is shown by 
the permanence of the impressions made on the senses. 
One young woman writes : i The change came in the 
ordinary course ; no one else had anything to do with 
it. I know no cause.' But in describing the pre-con- 
version experiences, she says, ' The fears of being lost 
set me to thinking ; I regretted my moral negligence; 
for six months nothing gave me any rest, and I engaged 
much in prayer.' M., 15. ' I felt self-condemnation at 
having done wrong. At the end of ten days I went 
into my bedroom and prayed. " Jesus, take me," is all 
I said. As I rose and walked across the room it came 
to me that I was sincere and my prayer was real, and 
I believed my acceptance with God.' Sometimes the 
experience which precedes the change is weeks and 
even months of intensest thought-struggle and prayer. 
Often the thought or act which sticks in one's conscious- 



CONSCIOUS AND SUB-CONSCIOUS ELEMENTS 107 

ness and seems to prepare it for the awakening is very 
small. This may depend on one's ripeness for the new 
experience. M., 19. ' Knowledge of sin had ripened into 
the sense of sin ; at church one sentence in the sermon 
caught my attention, though I was usually inattentive. 
The impression faded away immediately. Two days 
later, while in business, there was a sudden arrest of 
my thought without a consciously associated natural 
cause. My whole inner nature seemed summoned to 
a decision for or against God ; and in five minutes I 
had a distinctly formed purpose to seek Him. It was 
followed immediately by a change, the principal mani- 
festation of which was a willingness to make known 
my decision and hope of divine forgiveness.' These 
antecedents to the change are numerous and various. 
They are determination to yield, longing, effort, per- 
formance of some act, serious thought, and the like. We 
should recall in this connection that spontaneous awak- 
ening is the most frequent conversion phenomenon 
following effort in the direction of the new life. 

If we ask in what way these antecedents to conver- 
sion help work out a transformation of character, it will 
have to be admitted at the start that what happens 
below the threshold of consciousness must, in the nature 
of the case, evade analysis. It tends to fill in the chasm 
in our knowledge, however, to explain it in terms of the 
nervous system and its functionings. It is a generally 
accepted notion that every thought or feeling or volition 
involves some activity in the nervous system. In the 
language of Professor James, who has given the most 
lucid account of this point of view : ' There are mechani- 
cal conditions on which thought depends, and which, to 
say the least, determine the order in which is presented 
the content or material for her comparisons, selections 
and decisions/ ' Any new idea entertained means that 
a new connection between two cerebral areas has been 
formed, or that there has been some fresh combination 
of nervous discharges in the cerebrum. If two ideas 

1 Wm. James, Principles of Psychology, 1890, Vol. I., p. 553. 



108 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

are brought together in consciousness, the condition 
underlying it is that two nerve tracts have functioned 
simultaneously, or in close sequence. One of the most 
certain of all the principles relating to nerve activity is 
that most of it goes on independently of conscious voli- 
tion. Just as the beating of the heart is carried on by 
the lower nerve centres without our being aware of it, so 
cerebral activity goes on automatically, even during 
reverie and sleep. New stimuli are constantly raining 
in through the senses ; circulation and nutrition are 
storing up energy of different degrees of potentiality in 
different areas of the nervous system ; each discharge in 
the cerebrum becomes in turn a stimulus to the areas 
surrounding it. As a consequence the nervous system 
is ' like a wind-swept lake/ The elements of con- 
sciousness are re-combining, and perpetually taking on 
new colouring without our knowing it until the products 
start up into clearness. The difference between the 
conscious and sub-conscious elements is perhaps in the 
degree of resistance in the nervous system to the neural 
discharge which corresponds to a certain idea. If a dis- 
charge has little dynamic significance, or if it has become 
habitual and easy, the even flow of consciousness is not 
disturbed by it. If, on the other hand, an idea is difficult 
of realisation, and at the same time involves a consider- 
able fraction of the available nervous energy and a 
violent re-adjustment of the neural elements, it may be 
lifted up above the threshold of consciousness, and may 
have even momentous significance. 

Now, if our sketch of this aspect of the mental life is 
true, we are in a position to see the relation between the 
longings and strivings, the perplexity and uncertainty, 
the seriousness, and the like, which precede conversion, 
and the seemingly inexplicable outbursts of life which 
follow. It means that spontaneous awakenings are> in 
short, the fructification of that which has been ripening 
within the sub-liminal consciousness. Those phenomena 
which we have designated antecedents to conversion 
may have significance in either of two ways — in the first 



CONSCIOUS AND SUB-CONSCIOUS ELEMENTS 109 

place, they may be causal, in that they constitute new 
and foreign elements, which come in and directly lead 
up to the changed aspect of life which eventually 
appears. An instance of this kind may be found in the 
case quoted above, in which the young woman went to 
the altar the year before her conversion without realis- 
ing the desired experience. This act may have estab- 
lished an ideal which worked itself out meanwhile, so 
that it came over her * like a flash of lightning that she 
was saved.' Secondly, an antecedent element may 
simply be an index on the surface of what is going on 
beneath, as in another case above, in which a sentence in 
the sermon that caught the young man's attention may 
have been but an indication of the growth between the 
1 ripening of the sense of sin/ and the sudden but ' dis- 
tinctly formed purpose to seek God.' 

It will clear the matter up if we illustrate by a 
diagram the connection between the antecedents and 
the awakening. We shall begin with the most difficult 
case, that in which the awakening succeeds the charac- 
teristic depression and spiritual discontent, and if that 
becomes clear, the rest will follow easily. In Figure 7 
we shall let A, B, C, D stand for brain areas, or bits of 
experience which are real to the person before conver- 
sion, viz., right conduct, wise teaching, wholesome 
affections, some budding idea, as the case may be — all 
of which, when taken together, hint some larger revela- 
tion, r, which is dimly felt. The dreamed-of ideal, r, 
becomes a new and disturbing factor in consciousness. 
When the mind is once disturbed it cannot rest until 
harmony has been restored. It is like a new element 
coming to the physical organism, which must be assimi- 
lated as food, or cast out, like a splinter in the flesh, as 
a foreign substance. The mental state is that of the 
unwholeness, anxiety and pain we have described. 
There is a beating around the bush, a wanting something 
and not knowing what. But now, under the emotional 
stress of a revival, or following the natural processes of 
growth, harmony is unexpectedly struck among the 

9 



no THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

suggestions m } n, o y p of the bits of experience, A, B, C, 
D. The scattered ends seem to pick up and live. The 
condition is illustrated in Figure 8. R becomes the 
fuller, more adequate organising centre. It is life on a 
new plane, a fresh insight, a larger outlook on the world. 
The process of regeneration becomes, from this point of 
view, the feeling of ease, harmony and free activity, 
after the last step of assimilation and re-adjustment has 
been taken. 



Figure 7. — Before Conversion, Figure 8, — Conversion. 

Religious awakening is by no means a unique ex- 
perience, but falls in with the recognised facts of mental 
assimilation. The instances are numerous in solving 
problems, making inventions, reaching scientific con- 
clusions, and the like, of persons feeling after an idea 
with unrest and perplexity until the result is finally pre- 
sented to clear consciousness ready-made. The case of 
Sir William Rowan Hamilton's discovery of the method 
of ■ Quaternions ' is in point because of its similarity in 
most respects to the mental clarification which announces 
new religious insight. Hamilton writes : ' To-morrow 
will be the fifteenth birthday of the " Quaternions. " 
They started into life, or light, full-grown, on the 1 6th 
of October 1843, as I was walking with Lady Hamilton 
to Dublin, and came up to Broughton Bridge. That is 
to say, I then and there felt the galvanic current of 
thought close ; and the sparks which fell from it were 
the fundamental equations between i 9 j\ k — exactly such 
as I have used them ever since. I pulled out on the 
spot a pocket-book, which still exists, anc} made an 



CONSCIOUS AND SUB-CONSCIOUS ELEMENTS in 

entry, on which, at the very moment, I felt that it might 
be worth my while to expend the labour of at least ten 
(or it might be fifteen) years to come. But then it is 
fair to say that was because I felt a problem at that 
moment solved — an intellectual want relieved — which had 
Iiaunted me for at least fifteen years before! 1 In this 
particular instance, the ' conviction period ' lasted fifteen 
years, accompanied by an 'intellectual want/ until 
finally the ' galvanic current of thought closed/ bring- 
ing with it what we have called a ' spontaneous awaken- 
ing ' and relief. 

If we turn to the numerous instances in conversion 
of striving to obtain a revelation, we shall find it a special 
case of the principles of ' unconscious cerebration ' and 
mental assimilation just considered, and shall arrive at 
the same time at some understanding of the function 
of the will in conversion. In the act of trying, the 
ideal life is more keenly felt than in the instance 
we have been considering — the condition of vaguely 
feeling after it ; and some one course, say Bn of Figure 
7, is selected as the means of attaining r. After one 
exerts an effort, the fruition of it is accomplished 
by the life-forces which act through the personality. 
It is a well-known law of the nervous system that it 
* tends to form itself in accordance with the mode in 
which it is habitually exercised.' 2 It is only a slight 
variation on this law to say that the nervous system 
grows in the direction of the expenditure of effort. The 
unaccomplished volition is doubtless an indication that 
new nerve connections are budding, that a new channel 
of mental activity is being opened ; and, in turn, the act 
of centering force (trying) in the given direction may, 
through increased circulation and heightened nutrition 
at that point, itself directly contribute to the formation 
of those nerve connections, through which the high 
potential of energy which corresponds to the new insight 

1 North, British Review, Vol. XLV., p. 57. Quoted in Dr Carpenter's 
Mental Physiology, 188 1, p. 537. 

2 Carpenter, Mental Physiology', p. 344. 



ii2 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

expends itself. On the mental side, this law is illus- 
trated in the familiar instances of trying to recall a for- 
gotten name, giving it up, and having it flash across the 
mind at some unexpected moment, and of solving 
problems during sleep which have been struggled with 
unsuccessfully during the day. 1 The mind seems to 
have a way of working ahead at its difficulties uncon- 
sciously. Dr Smith, 2 in using the Ebbinghaus series of 
nonsense syllables in the study of memory, finds that if 
one fails to recall some member of a given series, it is 
the forgotten member which pops up in the succeeding 
series, rather than the members which had been recalled, 
and which, being the best known, might be expected to 
be the first to recur. The mind has delivered itself of 
the remembered ones, and in that respect is at ease ; the 
forgotten one, following the effort of the will to recall, 
blocks the free current of mental activity until it is 
worked out. This is what we have seen in conversion. 
The ideal dawns ; the will is exercised in its direction ; 
failing, there is unrest and distress ; finally the ideal is 
unexpectedly realised. The function of the will in conver- 
sion, then, seems to be to give point and direction to the 
unconscious processes of growth^ which, in turn, work out 
and give back to clear consciousness the revelation striven 
after. It is instructive to notice, as an illustration of 
how unconscious cerebral activity works out new changes, 
the instances in which the change of heart has been 
brought about during sleep. There are four such among 
our number. This is representative: F., 10. 'Some- 
thing said by the minister at a funeral brought me under 
deep conviction. After going to bed I wept long and 
bitterly, and asked God to forgive my sins. The next 
morning I was in a new world. What I experienced 
can only be known by one who has been born of the 

1 For numerous instances of * unconscious cerebration/ see an article by 
Chas. M. Child, American Journal of Psychology, V. , p. 249, and Car- 
penter, Mental Physiology, chap. xiii. Some are given also in chap. xi. 
following. 

2 Theodate Smith, * The Motor Element in Memory,' American Journal 
of Psychology, 1896, 



CONSCIOUS AND SUB-CONSCIOUS ELEMENTS 113 

Spirit/ This falls in line with the familiar instance of 
trying to solve some problem at night, and finding in 
the morning that the brain has done the rest during 
sleep. A music teacher of the writer's acquaintance 
says to his pupils, 'Just keep on trying, and some day 
all of a sudden you will find yourself playing.' The 
1 agonising to enter in ' may often be the only way to 
the new insight, and a definite cause in bringing it 
about. 

1 Perhaps the longing to be so 
Helps make the soul immortal.' 

In so far as this principle applies, it should emphasise 
for the religious teacher, or one in spiritual difficulty, the 
precept of patience, and should bring hope at the point 
of discouragement. Let one do all in his power, and the 
nervous system will do the rest ; or, said in another way, 
1 man's extremity is God's opportunity/ This seems to 
be one of the central principles underlying the philo- 
sophy of Browning : — 

4 All we have willed, or hoped, or dreamed of good shall exist ; 
Not its semblance, but itself. . . J 

* The high that proved too high, the heroic for earth too hard. 

The passion that left the ground to lose itself in the sky, 
Are music sent up to God by the lover and the bard ; 

Enough that he heard it once ; we shall hear it by-and-by.' 

'. . . Have we withered or agonised ? 
Why else was the pause prolonged, but that singing might 
issue thence ?' 

Although the exercise of the will is an important 
element in conversion, we are confronted with the 
paradox, pointed out in the last chapter, that in the 
same persons who strive toward the higher life, self- 
surrender is often necessary before the sense of assur- 
ance comes. The personal will must be given up. In 
many cases relief persistently refuses to come until the 
person ceases to resist or to make an effort in the direc- 



j i 4 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

tion he desires to go. R, 19. ' I had two years of doubts 
and questionings. It was my disposition to look at 
everything intellectually. I found I must give myself up 
into Christ's hands. I stopped thinking about puzzling 
questions ; I had faith in Him, and found peace/ F., 
13. ■ After seven days of anxious thought and medi- 
tation, I gave my heart to God, and He sent peace. 
The feeling came — how I cannot tell/ M., 15. 'After 
I had done everything in my power, it seemed that the 
change took place ; I saw I had depended too much on 
my own power/ M., 45. ' All at once it occurred to me 
that I might be saved, too, if I would stop trying to do 
it all myself, and follow Jesus. I determined right 
then to test His power and love ; while at the altar I 
determined to live a Christian life the remainder of my 
days, whether I felt forgiven or not Somehow, I lost 
my load/ M., 15. ' I finally ceased to resist, and gave 
myself up, though it was a hard struggle. Gradually 
the feeling came over me that I had done my part, and 
God was willing to do His/ 

At this point, we naturally feel ourselves closest to 
the mystery in conversion, and face to face with that 
aspect of the question where explanation, if it avails for 
anything, must throw some light on the whole process. 
Why can the new insight not be attained through one's 
effort? What is the new life which bursts forth at the 
point of self-surrender? What has faith to do in the 
process ? We shall advance two or three considerations 
which should lead us a little way toward the answer. 

The personal will is likely to fail to attain the new 
life, in the first place, because it may be exercised not 
quite in the right direction. This will become clear by 
making a slight variation on Figures 7 and 8 above, as 
shown in Figures 9 and 10. A, B, C, D, as before, are 
the cerebral centres, or organising centres of conscious- 
ness, which represent the imperfect self; r is the true 
insight after which the person is feeling his or her way, 
toward which the scattered elements of the old per- 
sonality are tending, as indicated in m, n, o,p. But, in 



CONSCIOUS AND SUB-CONSCIOUS ELEMENTS u^ 



the nature of the case, the imperfect self cannot picture 
r so that it may really be the goal of his striving. The 
sub-conscious forces, the buddings of new life, have far 
outstripped the growth of mental analysis ; so that 
there is lifted up before him, as a cloud in a mist, an 
ideal towards which he longs and struggles. But he 
can never know r until it has blossomed out and has 
actually been lived. He is not able even to appreciate 
the tendencies of growth, ;;/, n, o y p, by way of con- 
sciously helping them along. It is a corollary of the 
principle of unconscious cerebration, which we have just 
been considering, that these tendencies must remain 
below the possibility of analysis. Consequently, the 
insight striven after falls short of the true revelation. 




Figure 9. — Before Conversion. 



(b) [C; 

Figure 10. — Conversion. 



This aim is represented by r 1 in the figure, toward 
which the person strives, but is striving at a wrong 
angle. Doubtless the trying has been in the right 
general direction, and has helped to carry the life in 
the vicinity of r ; but there has been an aggravating 
discord between the line of personal effort and the 
normal trend of development. What must the person 
do ? He must cease trying ; he must relax, and let 
the nervous energy, which has been pent up and 
aching for some outlet of expression, seek its natural 
and normal channels — that is, he must fall back on the 
larger i Power that makes for righteousness/ which 
has been welling up in his being, and let it finish in 
its own way the work it has begun. When the person 
is at last ripe for the experience, when the lines of 



n6 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

growth have been focused to one point, when the 
imperfect life can no longer assert itself in the presence 
of the larger life that is seeking expression, the change 
comes, which means on the psychic side a new spiritual 
birth. Self- surrender \ then, is often necessary in order 
that the normal tendencies of growth may converge and 
flow into harmony y and that the point of new insight may 
bey for the person yielding, the truest organising centre of 
life. It is a common occurrence that the new life comes 
in strange and unexpected ways ; the amount of sur- 
prise, suppose we say, is an index of the angle between 
the direction of the will and the normal lines of growth. 
But the most vital point in the necessity of self-sur- 
render has only been hinted. The exercise of the per- 
sonal will is an emphasis of life in terms of the imperfect 
self. Oathe contrary, the elements of the old life must 
be swallowed up in the new synthesis. The point, r y 
toward which the life forces are converging, must itself 
become the organising centre of life. The condition 
shown in Figure 9 must give place to that repre- 
sented in Figure 10 above. R is a new cerebral centre 
of organisation of nerve elements. The old brain 
centres, A, B, C, D, are now referred to it. From the 
standpoint of the mental life, r is now the ego, the new 
personality — in terms of which everything else is seen. 
As long as the old condition persisted, the imperfect 
self being the point of reference, the truth of new life, 
r, was seen objectively ; it must no longer be seen from 
without, however, but from within. R is to become the 
embodiment of the truth looked on before from the 
outside. I must become it, and it must become a part 
of me. Conscious volition, before the change of heart, 
is the wilful assertion that life shall still be viewed 
through the old port-holes rather than from a new 
vantage ground. It is God and sinful man striving 
against each other. It is at the point of self-surrender 
that the deadlock is broken, and the man comes forth 
into a new world. The act of yielding, in this point of 
view, is giving oneself over to the new life, making it the 



CONSCIOUS AND SUB-CONSCIOUS ELEMENTS 117 

centre of a nezv personality, and living, from within, 
the truth of it zvhich had before been viezved objectively. 
We should almost be able at this point to anticipate the 
experiences following conversion, the newness, mingled 
strangeness and reality, buoyancy, joy and peace, which 
accompany the event of entering life on the new plane. 
They will be taken up, however, in the next chapter. 

We are in a position now to appreciate the function 
of faith in conversion. Faith is the next step after 
self-surrender, or even the accompaniment of it. The 
full assurance never comes until everything — old attach- 
ments, affections, animosities, any clinging to the old 
life, is given up. The person is completely relaxed. 
Then faith comes in, which means that the soul is in a 
receptive attitude, that it is left open, so that the new 
currents of mental activity may flow together into one 
great stream. One throws oneself completely on the 
World-will, so that one may become a ' receiver of its 
truth and an organ of its activity/ The amount of 
faith exercised is an implicit recognition of the dis- 
crepancy between the old life and the new, or, rather, 
the Power which is behind the new. The heat and 
bustling and worry and agonising give place to a 
confident assurance that the larger life will issue forth. 
'Be still, and know that I am God/ was Jehovah's 
command. A certain music teacher says to her pupils, 
after the thing to be done has been clearly pointed out 
and unsuccessfully attempted, ' Stop trying, and it will 
do itself.' Holmes disavowed having written his best 
poems — they were written for him. In conversion the 
assurance comes after the person has given up his will 
and thrown himself trustfully upon the larger life. 



CHAPTER IX 

TPIE QUALITY OF FEELING FOLLOWING CONVERSION 

There is a period just after the crisis in conversion, 
lasting, as the case may be, from a few hours to several 
months, or even years, which has as distinct a character 
as the period preceding. In many ways it is the exact 
antithesis to the pre-conversion period. In this chapter 
we shall have to consider its character, viewed from the 
standpoint of the emotional experiences. The feelings 
are generally directly opposed to those which precede 
conversion. They indicate relief from the tension and 
stress of the conviction period, and consequently are 
accompanied by the joy, happiness, lightness of heart 
and spiritual exaltation which naturally attend free 
activity and the exercise of a new power. For the sake 
of seeing the post-conversion phenomena fall into har- 
mony as we proceed, let us try to get a point of view 
which centrally underlies the variety of experiences. 
That is the thing which normally in point of develop- 
ment comes last, and perhaps should be left to each 
person after we have surveyed the ground ; but to con- 
sider it first will contribute to clearness as we proceed. 
The phenomena cluster about the birth of a new self, 
the organisation of nerve elements about a new centre, 
or, as we saw in the last chapter in Figure 10, the organ- 
isation of life about r, in such way that it becomes the 
point of reference for experience instead of A, B, C, D. 
So that, in considering the abstract feelings which result, 
the central fact for us (however incongruous it may appear 
with the 'unselfing,' to be discussed in the next chapter) 

118 



FEELING FOLLOWING CONVERSION 119 

is the functioning of a new and exalted personality. The 
' ego ' is lifted up into neiv significance. M., 1 5. ' I felt I 
belonged to a new category of being, nobler and more 
worthy to exist/ R, 12. ' The Bible was a new book 
to me. I read it with joy, and felt its laws, its admoni- 
tions and its promises were all for me.' (The respondent 
underscored 'me.') M., 15. 'I felt that God was my 
Father, and Christ my Elder Brother and Saviour/ 
F.) 16. ' Before, God had been far off in the sky, too 
holy and good to let me get close to Him. Now He was 
a tender, loving Father, and very near. Nature seemed 
to feel with me/ M., 23. ' All at once light and peace 
came into my soul as gently as the sun coming* up on 
a June morning. Heaven and earth seemed to meet. 
All was love. I was embraced in the great plan of 
redemption. Provision was made for me, even me. I 
wept often that God should love even me. I laughed 
that now I was the child of God, and the equal of any 
other creature. The best things in the world were for 
me as well as for anyone else/ This sense of exaltation, 
of a new ego, of being lifted up into the life of God, is 
the rule. There is a state of mind which sometimes 
occurs, however, that seems at first sight exactly to 
contradict this, viz., that of a sense of personal unworthi- 
ness and humility. R, 12. 'I did not live any more, 
but Christ lived in me/ In the last case quoted above, 
the greatness of God is implied throughout, although 
the larger life of the ' me ' is central. The two appar- 
ently opposite experiences are two sides, doubtless, of 
the same thing. In the sense of humility, the fresh burst 
of life is not so much my experience as a new experi- 
ence ; and it is appreciated as a part of the larger life 
outside the self. The infinite background of r, in our 
figure, is the real thing rather than r itself. 

One of the commonest experiences after conversion, 
an experience which we are able now to understand, is 
the sense of newness. The person is living in a new 
world. Old experiences are seen from a different point 
of view. The world bears a new face. It has likewise 



i2o THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

a new content, a new significance. Two or three of the 
intenser forms of this feeling will make it clear : F., 13. 
1 When rising from my knees, I exclaimed, " Old things 
have passed away, and all things have become new ! " 
It was like entering another world — a new state of 
existence. Natural objects were glorified. My spiritual 
vision was so clarified that I saw beauty in every 
material object in the universe. The woods were vocal 
with heavenly music.' M., 28. 'All day and night 
floods of light and glory seemed to pour through my 
soul, and O, how I was changed ! Everything became 
new. My horses and hogs and everybody became 
changed.' The newness is frequently expressed in more 
abstract and spiritual terms. M., 19. ' I felt an unfold- 
ing of truth and a revelation of God's ways. I under- 
went a moral and intellectual quickening.' This sense 
of newness is the inevitable consequence of a new centre 
of neural activity ; of transferring the ego to a new 
point of reference for old experiences, and, as we shall 
see, taking up new elements into its organisation. It 
really becomes a new self, and is often felt to be so. 
One person relates that on going home from a revival 

meeting he thought, ' Why, John , can this really 

be you ? ' When the thought is turned away from the 
self to the external world or to the content of thought 
and feeling, its objects become new. 

The general nature of the quality of the feelings can 
be better appreciated from a few brief quotations : 
M., 15. * I experienced joy almost to weeping.' M., 15. 
i I felt my face must have shone like that of Moses. I 
had a general feeling of buoyancy. It was the greatest 
joy it was ever my lot to experience.' R, 17. 'A 
sudden peace and rest seemed to come over me. I felt 
completely, perfectly, and quietly happy.' R, 18. 'The 
happiness was intense. I wanted to sing, but all the 
house was quiet' M., 12. ' I was very happy. I sang 
all night, and couldn't sleep.' M., 19. ' I felt relieved 
and filled with fresh courage.' R, 14. ' I felt as if a 
load were lifted from my body, and I was very happy.' 



FEELING FOLLOWING CONVERSION 



121 



F„ 16. ■ I wept and laughed alternately. I was as light 
as if walking on air. I felt as if I had gained greater 
peace and happiness than I had ever expected to ex- 
perience/ M., 15. 'There followed a delightful feeling 
of reconciliation with God and love for Him/ Besides 
these feelings of a definite and positive nature, there 
is now and then a sense of responsibility, continued 
struggle, anxiety about the future, and partial dis- 
appointment. F., 13. 'I was happy, but had a fear of 
doing something wrong.' M., 22. ' I felt relieved, but 
the props were knocked out from under me by two 
friends telling me I would fcnozv y when I professed oaly 
to believe. I rested pretty well in the feeling that I 
had done my best, and if God wanted to damn me, I 
could stand it/ 

An attempt at a rough classification of the charac- 
teristic feelings according to their quality gives Table 
XIV. The headings under which they were grouped 





Female. 


Male. 




Feelings following Conversion. 
(Per Cent, of Cases.) 


I 

> 


13 
# > 
*> 

a 




1 

> 

V 


I 
> 

V 

8i 

c 



Total. 


(J°y. • 

-j Bodily Lightness .... 

(Weeping, Shouting 

Peace 

Happiness 

J Relief 

\ Load lifted from Body or Heart . 

Acceptance and Oneness with God or 

Christ ...... 

Calm, Subdued .... 

Struggle, Sense of Responsibility 
Partial Disappointment . 


18 
14 
14 
14 
15 
II 

8 

17 
5 
9 

11 


14 
8 
6 

29 

25 
8 

4 

22 
2 
6 
8 


40 
II 
14 
II 
II 

14 
O 

II 

3 
3 
9 


35 
6 

3 

32 

16 



3 

22 
6 


12 


44 
19 
18 

37 

3i 

16 

8 

33 
7 

10 
18 



Table XIV. — Showing the relative prominence of some characteristic 
feelings following conversion . 



122 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

will be fairly clear. The words in which the experiences 
were described were usually the index to the groups ; 
but when they were graphically set forth with a variety 
of designations for the same experience, it was necessary 
to judge them for the classification. Joy and peace are 
distinguished in part by the intensity of the experience, 
the former being the stronger. The difference between 
joy and happiness is something like that between ' Oh, 
what joy!' and 'Aha, what happiness!' Of the dis- 
tinction between calmness and peace, the former is 
written more in the minor key, containing, as it does, 
a slight undertone of the pain of the pre-conversion 
period. 

The last column gives the relative prominence of the 
feelings. Joy, peace and happiness are three of the 
most frequent groups. Closely akin to these are bodily 
lightness and weeping and shouting, in which the buoy- 
ancy is expressed in physical terms. This is the most 
common quality of feeling — a spiritual uplift, freedom 
and harmony. The sense of peace is the point at which 
this kind of feeling shades off into relief — a feeling 
which, with its physiological correlative, being freed 
from a load on the body or heart, is rather frequent. 
Joy and happiness seem to indicate the completed 
escape from the old life and a looking toward the new, 
while in relief there is a sufficient tang of the old to 
furnish terms in which to read the new. One of the 
most common feelings is that of acceptance and one- 
ness with God or Christ. The joy, the relief, and the 
acceptance are qualities of feeling, perhaps, which give 
the truest picture of what is going on in conversion — 
the free exercise of new powers, an escape from some- 
thing, and the birth into Larger Life, with the corre- 
sponding sense of warmth and harmony. The last 
three groups in the table — calmness, responsibility and 
partial disappointment — are relatively less frequent. The 
meaning of them, the old life not quite stripped off, or 
the new not fully realised, will be seen more clearly in 
the next tabic, 



FEELING FOLLOWING CONVERSION 



123 



The differences between the sexes and between the 
revival and non-revival cases bear out the distinctions 
drawn heretofore, and do not need repeating. Of special 
significance in the table are the following points : — joy, 
the intenser emotion, is more frequent with the males, 
the sense of oneness and acceptance, with the females; 
the physiological irradiation of feeling is much greater 
in the revival cases, while the calmer spiritual experi- 
ences — peace, happiness, and the feeling of acceptance — 
are more characteristic of the non-revival cases ; among 
the females, calmness, responsibility and partial disap- 
pointment, and in both sexes the sense of relief are 
greater among the revival cases. 

The comparison in the same persons of the feelings 
before conversion and after it is instructive. This is 
shown in Table XV. In general, the clean-cut, positive 
experiences after conversion follow the intenser pre-con- 
version phenomena. For example, partial disappoint- 
ment most often succeeds anxiety and restlessness, but 









Feelings before Conversion. 


Feelings after Con- 


c 




<u 










version. 


C/3 


a 




P i 




V 














to 


c 








O 


(/) 


3 


c 


£ 


u 






V 

C 


a 


.2 


d 


'53 


<u 

>> 


1 






w 


Q 


<£ 


W 


« 


& 


W 


Joy . . 




23 


19 


9 


II 


5 


26 


i5 


JJodily Lightness 




8 


II 


2 


5 


5 


7 


4 


Weeping . 




10 


7 


3 


4 


7 


10 


2 


Peace 






17 


13 


15 


7 


8 


15 


19 


Happiness 






13 


13 


12 


15 


13 


13 


8 


Relief 






6 


3 


9 


3 


2 


6 


5 


Load lifted 






3 


3 


5 


1 


5 


2 


2 


Acceptance 






17 


13 


9 


6 


9 


17 


11 


Calmness . 






4 


1 


4 


1 


1 


2 


4 


Struggle . 






2 





1 


1 


1 








Partial Disappointment 


4 





8 


11 


4 


1 


7 



Taple XV. — Showing the relation between the pre-conversion a?$rf 
the fost-conversion feelings, 



i2 4 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

never follows depression, the more intense feeling of 
kindred nature to anxiety. On the contrary, in regard 
to joy, an intense emotion, this order is exactly reversed. 
Again, the sense of sin and that of depression most 
frequently crop out after conversion as joy ; while 
anxiety or restlessness is most often followed by peace, 
both being of the milder quality. One feature of this 
law of sequence is the tension and recoil aspect of the 
feelings ; they are pent up and then break out as a 
definite, vivid experience. This is borne out, for ex- 
ample, in the column under effort, in which the numbers 
representing peace, calmness and partial disappointment 
are about the largest numbers following those three 
items. The indication on the surface throughout the 
table is that peculiarities of temperament underlie the 
likenesses and differences before the crisis and after it. 
The disposition which feels keenly before conversion 
reacts violently at the crisis and has the more intense 
experiences afterward. Those who are thrown back on 
themselves, and experience markedly the sense of sin 
and depression, are the ones who are thrown vigorously 
in the direction of the new life. It will be observed 
also that the temperament which shuts itself against 
new influences, as evidenced by resistance before con- 
version, rarely experiences joy ; while, on the contrary, 
a more open nature, as indicated by prayer and effort, 
fc joy and acceptance afterward. 

The correspondences between post-conversion feelings 
and the experiences at the point of conversion — self- 
surrender, forgiveness, etc. — were also worked out. They 
corroborate the results given above. In both sets of 
comparisons there are hints of several laws of vital 
significance. On account of the fewness of the cases, 
however, these cannot be relied on sufficiently to develop; 
if there were a thousand records from which to generalise, 
instead of two hundred, some of the hints would doubt- 
less attain a high degree of certainty, and would accord- 
ingly throw further light into the nature of the process 
of conversion. 



CHAPTER X 

THE CHARACTER OF THE NEW LIFE 

We have now to ask, What are the distinctive things in 
the new life which set it off against the old ? In what, 
more in detail, does the sense of its newness consist ? 
And what are the added elements, if any, which have 
come into it ? For the sake of clearness in discussing the 
feelings, we anticipated in the last chapter the central 
fact in the change of heart, namely, the organisation of 
life about a new centre. This brings along with it two 
results already noticed ; first, the lifting up of the new 
personality into great significance ; and, secondly, the 
sense of newness with which the world of objects and 
even the personality itself is viewed. Another result 
equally common is the sense of reality with which the 
new world presented to consciousness is clothed. 
Incident on the birth of the ' I ' is the awakening of ^e 
sense of mtneness. The way in which new and old 
things are filled with meaning so that the person has a 
sense of possession of them and participation in them 
will be best appreciated by a few typical examples : F„ 
14. * I attended church and engaged in prayer with a 
new feeling. The Bible was more precious, and prayer 
a comfort and joy.' F., 14. * In seeing persons confess 
their faith I felt like asking if they knew what a serious 
step it was, and how they must act/ F., 12. ' Before, I 
had studied for praise ; now, because it was a duty. I 
had prayed at night ; now I went to God at any time. 
I began to reflect on the Bible and to perform acts of 

125 10 



126 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

self-denial. All these things were now a part of me.' 
M., 1 8. ' I loved to read the Bible now. Its truths were 
so interesting which before had been insipid.' F., 14. 
'God was my Father and heaven my home.' M., 15. 
1 For a long time I tried to realise my ideal, quite 
different from the silken Christianity of to-day.' F., 13. 
' The truths of the Bible seemed meant for me. 
Prayers seemed real petitions and thanksgiving.' Here 
is one in the process of making. ' I dreaded to go to 
church for fear I could not make the whole thing vital. 
I prayed about it before going, and made constant effort 
to make it so.' 

The important thing in these quotations is the way 
in which things are now lifted above the dead level of 
commonplaceness, or, rather, how the new ' ego ' has 
emerged into clearer consciousness, so that it feels the 
relation existing between it and its spiritual environ- 
ment. It feels its content as real and as mine. It is 
significant that it is so frequently the acts of common 
performance, the prayers, church-going, Bible-reading, 
the old passages of Scripture and sermons, which before 
had passed through the mind without arousing any 
warmth or sense of possession, which have vitality. It 
is as if that which had before existed as reflexes in the 
lower nerve centres had been taken up as factors in 
higher cerebral activity ; or, if we say the same thing in 
terms of psychic activity, it is as if the possible new 
life had been lingering in the subliminal consciousness, 
and even rising up as a disturbing and perplexing 
factor in the mind, and had now found a place in clear 
consciousness. 

We now come upon an interesting anomaly. 
Heretofore we have been considering the new life in 
terms of an exalted selfhood. The 'me' has become 
the point of reference for the larger world of experience. 
But there is clearly bound up in the process a self- 
forgetfulness, a sympathetic outgoing which apparently 
exactly contradicts the exaltation of self we have 
considered. So that now we have to view 



THE CHARACTER OF THE NEW LIFE 127 



Conversion as a Process of Unselfing. 

In the first place, let us get a clear notion of what the 
respondents say. M., 15. ' The chief change was in my 
inmost purpose. I was no longer self-centered. The 
change was not complete, but there was a deep under- 
current of unselfishness/ F., 12. ' The change made me 
very affectionate, while before I was cold to my parents/ 
M., 14. ' I felt it my duty after that to be polite and sym- 
pathetic. My enemies were changed to friends.' M., 
18. * My motive to chase worldly riches was changed to 
that of saving others. I even made mistakes through 
altruism.' In these instances we see how the 
personality is expressing itself, and going out sym- 
pathetically, and knitting itself into the world about it. 
As an emphasis of this same tendency, there is very 
often a turning back upon the self in scorn and, in 
preference, seeking the larger life. This results in 
numerous acts of self-denial, self-sacrifice and self- 
abnegation. 

In classifying the facts of the changed relation to the 
objective world, they fell into three groups depending 
on the object of attachment, closer relations to persons, 
to nature, and to God or Christ. (1.) Relation to persons. — 
R, 13. ■ I began to work for others ; immediately I was 
anxious that all should experience the same.' F., 17. 
1 I had more tender feeling toward my family and 
friends.' F., 16. 'I spoke at once to a person with 
whom I had been angry. I felt for everyone, and 
loved my friends better.' M., 19. ' I felt everybody to 
be my friend.' (2.) Relation to nature. — M., 16. ' The 
stars never have appeared so bright as that night going 
home.' M., [3. ' I had a special feeling of reverence 
toward nature.' F., 12. ' I seemed to see God's great- 
ness in nature.' (3.) Relation to God or Christ. — F., II. 
'God was not afar off; He was my Father, and Christ 
my Elder Brother.' F., 14. ' Fear of God was gone. 
I saw He was the greatest Friend one can have.' M., 



128 



THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 



14. 'I felt very near to my God.' M., 15. 'I felt in 
harmony with everybody, and all creation and its 
Creator.' The result of tabulating the cases is shown 
in Table XVI. It should be noticed in these percen- 
tages, as in all the preceding, that they express the 
lowest possible estimate, since they represent the 
number of cases only in which the phenomenon was 
sufficiently prominent to receive explicit mention. 





Females. 


Males. 


Desire to Help Others 

Love for Others . • , . • 
Closer Relation to Nature . • . 
Closer Relation to God . 
Closer Relation to Christ 


28 

42 

43 
6 


28 
42 
34 
43 
4 



Table XVI. — Showing the percentage of cases in which a changed relation 
to God, nature and persons was mentioned as the result of conversion. 

Allowing for this, and for imperfect records, we should 
say that about one-half the persons experience, as the 
result of conversion, a closer relation to God. It is 
clear, from the table, that in a large per cent, of cases 
an immediate result of conversion is to call the person 
out from himself into active sympathy zvith the zvorld 
outside. 

How does this principle of conversion as an unselfing 
harmonise with the equally obvious one of conversion 
as the sense of the new worth of the self? In the first 
place, the attachment to the world of nature and of 
spiritual truth grows out of the condition, doubtless, 
that the new life is a centre of activity, and it must 
seek an object of its expression. We have seen that 
the new personality is not only an activity, but a con- 
scious activity. As such it must objectify itself. Why 
it selects just these objects — God, persons, the beauty of 
natural objects — instead of any others, we shall see more 
clearly in another connection. In the second place, it 
appears that the outcrops of self-appreciation and of 



THE CHARACTER OF THE NEW LIFE 129 

altruism are two aspects of the same thing, in the same 
way that self-exaltation and humility may be two mani- 
festations of one underlying condition. If the thing 
which comes up in consciousness is the fact of the new 
powers and freedom, the result obtains that the person- 
ality feels its worth and exults in its new life. Con- 
sciousness may, on the contrary, be directed to the 
larger life, of which it has become an organic part, and 
feel most vividly its otherness. It is therefore a matter 
of selection and emphasis of two things intimately bound 
together. Let us take, for example, the complex notion 
of the changed relation of the person and God. In one 
case the emphasis makes it read, 'God is now my 
Father/ with the result that the person ' seems to belong 
to a new order of being/ and 'the best things in the 
world are for me as well as for anyone else.' Another 
person, however, has a different shading of emotion, 
thus : ' God is my Father] in which case may follow 
the loving service and devotion which are so often 
expressed. Sometimes self-exaltation is the more pro- 
minent element, sometimes altruism ; often they are 
blended. Now and then they are thrown into gro- 
tesque antithesis as in the following instance of a woman 
converted at 18 : 'I was a new creature in Christ Jesus. 
Everything seemed heavenly rather than earthly ; every- 
thing was so lovely. I had a love for everybody. It 
was such a blessed experience ! Going home I walked 
on the curbstone rather than walk or talk with ungodly 
people/ In this case the two elements stand out separ- 
ately and in contradiction. Perhaps we can rightly 
understand the presence of such opposite feelings in 
the individual only by viewing them as instinctive 
outcrops whose differentiation has been exaggerated 
through racial experience passed on by heredity, and 
which break out in individuals in unreasoned and in- 
harmonious relation. Whether seen from the point of 
view of the race or the individual, it seems that the 
heightened worth of self and the altruistic impulses in 
conversion are closely bound up together > and the differences 



i 3 o THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

between them lie simply in the different content of con- 
sciousness, determined by the direction in which it is turned. 
The central fact underlying both is the formation of a new 
ego, a fresh point of reference for mental states. From the 
standpoint of development, the essential thing under 
these two aspects of the new life is the breaking of the 
shell that has bound the self in its narrow limits, the 
emerging into the life of the social whole, the going out 
lovingly and sympathetically as a factor in society, the 
reaching out into, and becoming one with, the Power 
that Makes for Righteousness, in short, the bursting the 
limits of self and being born into a larger life. This 
expresses itself directly in the altruistic impulses of 
conversion. The other aspect, that of self-appreciation, 
is doubtless the sudden ripening in the individual of 
some of the more primal instincts— pleasure in free 
activity, self-preservation, the desire for larger life — but 
along with sudden self-realisation there comes the added 
thing, the necessary condition of either a social or 
spiritual community, the birth of the self into the larger 
world. It is of extreme significance to note that this 
birth usually comes at about the time in life when 
it is the custom for youths to be thrown into society, 
into contact with new educational and religious influ- 
ences, and also at the time when the physiological 
awakening has announced the possibility of parenthood 
and citizenship. Thus we are now in a position to see 
that in conversion the element which is most fundamental 
from the standpoint of priority is the awakening of self - 
consciousness, while the essential factor from the standpoint 
of development is the process of unselfing. 

We see, then, that in a certain true sense the altruistic 
instincts are an added element in consciousness. This 
falls in line with other facts, and suggests that we view 

Conversion as the Birth of New Powers. 

The facts appear as if, at the time of conversion, 
there had been the liberation of fresh energy, or as if 



THE CHARACTER OF THE NEW LIFE 131 

new streams had flowed into consciousness. We have 
in one way and another been coming upon the evidences 
in the preceding pages. Let us look for a moment at 
some of the facts. In the following quotations there 
is a rich and varied suggestiveness of new elements, 
mental clarification, spiritual insight, volitional en- 
thusiasms, emotional awakenings, deepened motives, 
that have been turned loose in consciousness: F., 12. ' I 
wanted to talk of Christ everywhere, and I received 
power to talk of Him I had never before possessed. I 
seemed a new creature/ F., 12. ' I wanted to help get 
others to come/ M., 14. ' I felt my life given to spiritual 
actions/ M., 12. 'I became more studious/ M., 18. 
1 The opening of my spiritual eyes was the great event ; 
there was no great change otherwise., I had always 
done as well as I knew/ F., 19. ' Difficult problems 
(life problems) became more simple and easy to believe/ 
M., 19. 'I thought now on the goodness of God and 
His promises/ F., 13. ' I felt right and wrong for the 
first time. Passages of Scripture had new meaning. I 
now meditated on what to do/ M., — . 'O, what a 
change ! Church became more attractive ; I saw some 
sense in the minister's talks, which before were meaning- 
less. I was at peace with everybody. I had periods 
of supplication to know God's will/ M., 18. * People 
would have noticed little change, but I tried harder to 
be careful in word and work/ F., 16. 'Life was the 
same, for I had been brought up in Christian habits ; 
but now there was a spring of happiness and love 
within that I had not possessed before/ In the follow- 
ing instance, several of the different elements mentioned 
above are combined : M., 23. ' I do not know that my 
outward conduct was much different from what it had 
been for two years previously, except that I had a 
liberty, a freedom, a joy, that I had not before. My 
general health was much improved. I at once began 
to study the best books and to seek the best things, to 
plan to be something for God. I read the Bible with 
more delight. I wanted others to know I was a 



i 3 2 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

Christian. I worked hard, played hard, did everything 
with enthusiasm and reason for the glory of my Master.' 
What shall we say of this awakening of new powers 
and activities? In former years it was said that the 
person had been ' born of the Spirit/ or ' endued with 
power from on high/ a point of view which, from our 
present standpoint, seems entirely accurate. It is as if 
brain areas which had lain dormant had now suddenly 
come into activity — as if their stored-up energy had been 
liberated, and now began to function. The growth of 
consciousness is, in the rough, parallel with the increase 
of associational fibres in the cerebrum, which condition 
the bringing together of the different ideational centres 
in the brain. At conversion the conditions are as they 
would be if the various areas were suddenly struck into 
harmony. If we take into account what was observed 
in a previous section, that those things which now come 
into clear consciousness are often the hitherto unnoticed 
factors in the habitual life, the interpretation seems to 
be that now suddenly the reflexes in the lower nerve 
centres are connected by a higher arc with the cerebral 
reflexes, and so have become elements in clear con- 
sciousness. Through the processes of growth, the 
various brain areas have been lifted to such a potential 
that they need only to have their equilibrium destroyed 
to flow into unison, and so bring a flood of latent energy 
through the new organising centre of consciousness, 
apparently entirely incompatible with anything that 
had been present before. In conversion, accordingly, 
the new factors may be simply new to consciousness, but 
factors which had been already latent in the mental life. 
This is a point of view which seems to explain the facts. 
As an illustration of its truth, it is instructive to notice 
a case or two in which the results of conversion are 
incompatible with the influences brought to bear — in 
which the effect is greater than the apparent cause. 
M., 15. ' I got water from a bad well, instead of a more 
distant, better one, and allowed the deception. It was 
found out, and struck at my pet virtue, truthfulness. 



THE CHARACTER OF THE NEW LIFE 133 

"Deception" sounded in my ears during the next ten 
days whenever I was mentally unoccupied. At the end 
of ten days I shut myself in my room. I called myself 
a hypocrite, and prayed. " Jesus, take me," is all I said. 
As I walked across the room it came to me that I was 
sincere and that my prayer was real, and I believed my 
acceptance with God. . . . After this I was con- 
scientious to do everything that was right — not chiefly 
to tell the truth. The whole Right, as a loving duty to 
God, became my standard, while before other duties had 
had a secondary value/ This is an example, doubtless, 
of following up one associational path toward the 
possible new ego, and finally reaching that point toward 
which all the lines of spiritual tendency converge. The 
sense of acceptance is the point at which they all flow 
together. The result is apparently larger than the con- 
ditions which lead up to it. It is like freeing one petal, 
and thereby helping the whole flower to unfold. 

This point of view enables us likewise to understand 
the result of conversion as a giving rise, in so short a 
time, to 

Life on a Higher Plane. 

It is a process of realising the possibilities of growth ; 
of making a draft on the latent energies of the nervous 
system, stored up through racial activity and in the 
individual life up to this period, which might otherwise 
have lain dormant always. From this point of view 
we are ready to accept the strange transformations of 
character from evil to goodness, and the sudden uplifts 
which raise life to a higher plane, of which the following 
are fair instances: M., 19. 'The most prominent sins 
immediately came under the power of the new life. I 
was literally changed in an instant from a dishonest to 
an honest man.' M., 23. ' I experienced a complete 
change of conduct ; I left off the old habits of drink and 
profanity without efifort. , M., 37. 'The old will that 
made me suffer was mine ; now I cared not about my 



i 3 4 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

will, but God's/ M., 19. c The change was marked and 
radical. I had feared God, now I loved Him. I did 
not rest in ceremonies, except as a means of growth.' 
F., 18. ' Before conversion I observed all the religious 
customs, but without interest ; they were all alike to me. 
Now I did them with spirit and interest. I took an 
interest in humanity and all the things about me/ So 
they go, giving evidence usually of a more earnest, 
joyous, active life, as shown in deepened interest in the 
conventional religious observances, meditation, private 
prayer, positive religious striving, performance of duty, 
the renovation of religious motives, leaving off old 
habits, and the like. 

When the change is so complete that the self be- 
comes a point of reference for experiences, the old life 
has really ceased to be, except as a contributing or a 
disturbing element in the new. We shall have ample 
evidence in the sequel that it does still live in the back- 
ground, and will make itself felt, if the new life weakens 
before it becomes thoroughly established — before the 
nervous reflexes which correspond to the new self-hood 
have become deeply ingrained and habitual. But as 
long as the new self-hood is maintained, as long as there 
is sufficient tension in the nervous system to keep it 
intact, until it becomes weak and staggers, the old life 
does not exist as a sensible factor in consciousness. 
The available supply of nervous energy flows only 
along the new channels ; the old channels are accord- 
ingly as if dammed up, since their usual functioning has 
been cut off. The old elements in consciousness, unless 
they fall in line with the new and reinforce them, are 
annulled. The new ' stream of consciousness ' sweeps 
things before it, and old sins are washed away. 



CHAPTER XI 

CONVERSION AS A NORMAL HUMAN EXPERIENCE 

As we have proceeded, we have seen the facts of con- 
version falling together more and more in such a way 
as to suggest a reading of the whole experience as a 
natural psychological process. Before we go on to an 
interpretation of it as a whole, it will be of advantage if 
we are convinced still further, one way or the other, 
whether or not it is explainable in terms of the normal 
mental activities which function in common experience. 
One of the best means will be to inquire whether there 
are, among the so-called natural (i.e., non-religious) 
experiences, phenomena analogous to those which 
appear in each stage of conversion. With this in view, 
the following list of questions was sent out : — 

'(a) Describe any faults or acts you have committed 
which you knew at the time were wrong. Why did you 
do them ? 

'(b) What sudden awakening of power have you 
noticed in yourself, in others, or in animals — speaking, 
singing, playing, loving, hating, reasoning, etc.? How 
sudden was it ? How do you explain it ? 

'(c) Describe any sudden change which has come 
into your character or in your attitude toward things or 
persons. How and why did it occur? 

'(d) Have you ever had a time of great uncertainty 
which of two possible courses to pursue — in choosing a 
calling, in love, \vhether to do an act or not, etc.? 
Describe accurately and minutely your feelings pre- 
ceding, during, and after the struggle? 

i35 



136 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

C (V) If you have ever broken a habit, describe all the 
accompanying experiences and feelings/ 

The questions brought in a large mass of valuable 
data. A few illustrations are appended to show certain 
features similar to the typical ones in conversion. 

(a) Depression and Joy. 

The feelings of pain, unhappiness and depression 
accompanying uncertainty in the presence of two or 
more alternatives of conduct or attachment, and the 
final joy and lightness of heart after the decision, illus- 
trate, on the one hand, the feelings during conviction, 
and, on the other, those after the crisis. F. 'For a year 
or more I had something on my mind which I felt I 
ought to tell mother. At last I came to feel that I could 
not stand it any longer, and that I must do something 
to relieve me of this constant feeling that I ought. I 
felt very nervous and worried ; I was determined to tell 
her, but felt afraid my courage would fail. With my 
heart beating very fast, I followed her to her room. I 
felt so relieved when it was over I hurried to my room 
and laughed and cried at intervals. I still felt nervous, 
and trembled somewhat for a little while afterward. 
After that I seemed to forget everything connected with 
my old wrong, and I felt that I had gained a great 
victory over myself/ F. 'When 14, I was undecided 
whether to go away from home to school, or to public 
school at home. I used to think about it continually, 
until I lost my appetite, and became so cross and fretful 

that my brothers told me that I had better go to T , 

away from home, as I was a little crank. I decided to 
go away ; and after I had once decided, it seemed as if 
a great load had left me, and I was free again/ F. ' I 
was uncertain about choosing a profession. I was in a 
state of perplexity and restlessness ; I could not lie 
down to restful sleep. I felt to a certain degree de- 
pressed. I was anxious for a decision, because I knew 
it must come. When the struggle was ended, a feeling 



CONVERSION AS A NORMAL EXPERIENCE 137 

of relief and rest came ; it almost seemed as if I had 
entered a new world/ F. ' A year ago I was uncertain 
whether to break friendship with a girl acquaintance. 
I thought she exerted a harmful influence, but I liked 
her very much. It took over a week to make the de- 
cision ; all that time I had fear and depression, I could 
not sleep well, and lost my appetite One night, as I 
lay in bed, I felt I must decide. For a few moments 
there was a struggle in my mind that almost amounted 
to pain. Then I resolved to break off the friendship. 
After the struggle I felt a sense of weariness as well as 
of peace. I felt just as if I wanted to rest awhile, and 
soon fell asleep/ F. ' Since conversion I have had the 
same feelings when trying to decide some important 
question. After the decision is made, in trying to find 
which way is best, there comes the same peace and rest/ 
It is seen that, in these cases of uncertainty and relief, 
both the bodily and mental accompaniments are the 
same as those preceding and after conversion. Conver- 
sion we have interpretated, in one sense, as the conflict 
of the higher and lower selves, between which the life is 
ground until the decision comes, after which there is joy 
and peace. 

(b) Sudden Awakenings. 

These instances of sudden and apparently unaccount- 
able awakenings of power and insight are analogous to 
the larger spiritual awakenings : ' A little boy four years 
*old could not talk; he made queer sounds for different 
objects. All at once he began to talk, and said his 
words plainly ; he could soon say everything he heard/ 
'A little girl I knew well could not sing a note or carry 
a tune. Suddenly, one day, she came in singing u Sweet 
Marie " in sweet, clear voice/ F. ' I was very anxious 
to learn to play the piano, and would spend hours at the 
instrument. One day I suddenly found I could play a 
little waltz my sister had given me. This incited me to 
try another piece, and I found I could play that. F. 



138 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

1 1 tried to learn to mount and dismount a bicycle, until 
it seemed to me there was no use in trying any more. 
All at once, one night, I found I could do both easily.' 
F. * I studied physics under a good teacher, but could 
not see into it. I went home one day feeling sick and 
discouraged with the problem : Why do we see our- 
selves upside down in a spoon ? I studied over it for 
an hour, and it was dark. Suddenly it seemed lighter; 
then I saw the reason as clearly as I ever did anything. 
I felt so glad ; and the physics problem was settled for- 
ever in my mind. I liked the study, and could under- 
stand it. I cannot explain why it was.' F. 'At 14 I 
studied mensuration; I thought I never could under- 
stand it, and felt quite discouraged. After hearing a 
pupil recite one day, the power to do it came like a 
flash, and it became my favourite study.' F. ' I could 
not understand subtraction in algebra ; I could not 
even do the examples mechanically, I failed every day 
in it. Suddenly one day, while working alone, it dawned 
on me, and since then I have had no trouble. It is the 
easiest thing in algebra now.' M. ' My students and I 
had worked several days on a problem in geometry. 
One night I went to bed, after trying again and failing. 
The next morning, on awakening, the solution of the 
problem was so distinct before my mind, I saw it in 
visual terms.' 

These cases illustrate 'spontaneous awakening ' follow- 
ing positive effort, in which we have supposed that un- 
conscious cerebral activity has completed the result and 
given it back to consciousness. The experiences which* 
precede the awakening are similar to the sense of incom- 
pleteness. Occasionally, even, in these relatively mild 
incidents, they deepen into something akin to the sense 
of sin, as in the following : F. ' When grandmother 
died, everything seemed so dull and dreary, as if a 
dark cloud hung over me. I couldn't seem to get 
comfort from anyone, or even from prayer. When I 
prayed, the words had no meaning at all. I was in 
this condition more than a month, when suddenly 



CONVERSION AS A NORMAL EXPERIENCE 139 

the cloud broke away, and I found comfort in my 
Bible/ 

It often occurs that the whole nature blossoms out 
suddenly, when there are apparently no religious ele- 
ments involved, just as when the change is of a distinctly 
religious character. The following is one of four equally 
striking cases reported by President C. G. Baldwin : 
1 Boy of seventeen ; read in the second reader, and took 
no other work. Teachers before had whipped him three 
or four times a day. He was up to all mischief — threw 
shot and paper balls, pinched his neighbours, crawled 
upon the floor under the girls' seats, etc., etc. His father 
had no control over him. Not knowing what to do, I 
paid no attention to him, but let him run about just as 
a dog. The children ceased to laugh at him ; he cut no 
figure. One day I was hearing the class in partial pay- 
ments, and urged them to learn the rule. They objected 
strenuously on the ground of time. Just then this boy 
threw a paper ball past my ear, and reminded me of his 
existence. I turned on him and said, " There's Charlie 

N , he could learn that rule in fifteen minutes." He 

turned towards me eagerly and asked what it was. I 
told him, and he said, " Let me try." When the time 
was up he went through it to the end. I said, " There ! 
I told you so." He sat down collapsed, like a wilted 
cabbage leaf. At recess he came to me and asked to 
study arithmetic. He got his book and went to work. 
He never made any trouble after that, and was a good 
student in all lines, helpful and useful as any normal 
boy. I never had occasion to rebuke him in the three 
years I taught there, except once for whispering too 
loudly, and that brought the tears to his eyes that he 
had lost my confidence even for a moment ! ' It seems 
highly probable that in such instances unassociated 
nerve elements are ripe to be struck into harmony 
and lifted into cerebral co-ordination. The final act 
by which the nerve currents flowed into new, related 
channels apparently drafted off the energy of other areas, 
and left the boy exhausted for the moment. Instances 



i 4 o THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

are likewise on record in religious conversion in which 
the person is left prone and helpless. In one of 
the cases above, the young woman felt at peace, but 
just as if she wanted to rest. That the pupil should 
have become a good student in all lines is analogous 
to the wholeness of the change in conversion. If our 
analysis of the conditions underlying the change is 
true, this aspect might be expressed thus : a stimulus, 
which arouses the attention at the same time that it 
awakens native tendencies of nervous discharge, gives 
rise to a discharge from the lower reflex arcs into a 
higher cerebral arc {i.e., awakens an idea). Tension is 
produced in a new (cerebral) area of the nervous system, 
which becomes the centre of discharge. Other brain 
areas, in so far as they are connected by associational 
paths with this one, likewise bring their contribution to 
consciousness, so that the whole of consciousness is 
organised about the new centre, and the entire person- 
ality is involved. 

(c) Sudden Changes in Emotional Attitude. 

Even more mysterious than the last group of in- 
stances are the cases in which an unexpected revulsion of 
feeling occurs, usually without any very marked cause, 
and often with no apparent antecedent. These seem to be 
numerous, and to extend through the whole range of 
feelings from mere tastes for foods to attachments and 
repulsions which involve the entire nature. F. ■ I 
disliked bananas very much. One day, on tasting one, 
I found that I liked it, and since then I cannot get 
enough of them. It was just the same with cooked 
onions/ F. ' When about 9 I was very fond of 
bananas. My cousin gave me all I could eat, and I 
became sick at my stomach. After that I had the 
same sick feeling whenever I saw bananas/ F. ' I 
never could bear the taste of turkey. Two years ago, 
I was visiting, and had to take it, or be rude. I have 
liked it ever since/ M. ' To one particular fellow in 



CONVERSION AS A NORMAL EXPERIENCE 141 

our club I took a great dislike. He never did anything 
to me. He always treated me kindly. I never knew 
why I disliked him.' F. * I knew a girl whom I 
thought a great deal of. One day I happened to think 
of her, and just then I felt that I didn't like her at all. 
It seemed strange to me, and I thought I could not 
dislike her ; but all her bad traits stood out before me, 
and I couldn't see anything in her to like.' F. ' I 
once had a teacher whom I simply detested. I disliked 
her so much that I thought of her constantly. One 
day I happened to pass her in the hall. I do not know 
what she did. In fact, I think she did nothing, but just 
as quickly as she passed me my hatred turned to 
love. I know it sounds foolish to speak of loving anyone 
like that, but I positively adored her.' F. ' My husband 
was jealous of my love for an invalid sister, who had 
lost her health for me, and he forced me to leave her. I 
went back to her with my baby, and was able, by 
teaching music, to make a scanty living for three. 
Husband begged me to return West, but I refused, 
although I was heavily burdened. My judgment told 
me to stay, but my heart yearned after him. I went to 
God and wrestled half the night. At two o'clock peace 
came. He took away my love for my hysband. It 
left me in an instant, and has never returned. Now I 
feel free/ These quotations contain evidence on the 
surface that something has been happening underneath 
in sub-consciousness. They are similar to the mys- 
terious transformations in religious emotion, which 
completely change one's affections and attachments. 



(d) Breaking Habits. 

Very similar in all the phenomena connected with 
it to that type of conversion which follows waywardness, 
is the breaking of habits. The instances are numerous, 
and include the conquering of habits or propensities in 
children and animals, in which the new attitude is 
largely externally induced, and those also in which the 

II 



142 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

volitions play an active part. ' I knew of a horse 
which delighted in kicking, biting, and running away. 
Its owner was afraid to feed it, and gave it away. The 
new owner geared the horse to drive it home. It tried 
to kick. He gave it a good beating, and after that 
he never had any trouble with it. He would even let it 
stand without tying.' ' Uncle had a horse which was a 
great favourite, and as gentle and docile as could be. 
He was once frightened by a fire-engine, and after 
that he became so vicious that it was not safe to 
drive him/ M. 'When about 5 I displayed a violent 
temper. One day, in unrestrained rage, I chased my 
next older brother around the yard and into the house, 
hurling things at him like a young gorilla. My mother 
was so concerned about me that she wept (she was not 
the sort of woman to "cry") in genuine discouragement, 
and said she didn't know but I would have to go to the 
reform school. I truly repented. After a short nap, 
I sought her good-will, and ever afterward was noted 
for obedience and docility/ ' The child of my friend was 
much spoiled. While I was with him, the child became 
unmanageable. The father held him firmly several hours. 
At last the child stopped kicking and crying and said, 
"Papa, I .love you," and was good after that/ M. 
1 For years I had indulged in the habit of profanity. 
When 20, I was elected teacher of a country school, 
and I felt I ought to set a good example to my pupils. 
About the same time, the reading of the Chautauquan 
course set me to thinking, and led me to adopt a higher 
ideal. As soon as the foolishness of the habit was 
brought to my notice, I made one firm resolve, and the 
battle was won/ F. ' When I was about 40, I tried 
to quit smoking, but the desire was on me, and had 
me in its power. I cried and prayed and promised 
God to quit, but could not. I had smoked for 15 years. 
When I was 53, as I sat by the fire one day smok- 
ing, a voice came to me. I did not hear it with 
my ears, but more as a dream or sort of double think. 
It said, " Louisa, lay down smoking." At once I replied, 



CONVERSION AS A NORMAL EXPERIENCE 143 

" Will you take the desire away?" But it only kept 
saying, " Louisa, lay down smoking." Then I got up, 
laid my pipe on the mantelshelf, and never smoked 
again, or had any desire to. The desire was gone as 
though I had never known it or touched tobacco. The 
sight of others smoking and the smell of smoke never 
gave me the least wish to touch it again.' 

In the breaking of habits there is clearly a conflict 
between the old habitual course of action and a new set 
of nervous discharges which are trying to establish 
themselves. In the midst of the conflict there is pain. 
The continued trying, together with a corresponding 
cerebral growth in the direction of the effort, or of the 
external influence, cause the energy finally to shoot 
into the new direction, and the new thing is accom- 
plished. In the last two instances above, one sees that 
at the critical point in the change the person is either 
an actor or largely an observer, as was true in conver- 
sion. In the last case, the ripening has gone on 
unconsciously, so that the final impulse comes to 
consciousness as something from without, as a sort of 
voice. The ' double think ' seems to indicate that both 
courses of action — the old habitual one and the one just 
sprouting — have worth to consciousness at the same 
time. 

In these common experiences we find analogies to 
all the steps of conversion, even the most unaccountable 
and mysterious. Now let us think clearly on the 
significance of them. They do not explain conversion. 
The breaking of a habit, as far as ultimate explanation 
goes, is itself as mysterious as anything that happens 
in consciousness. These facts do make intelligible, 
however, the processes involved in conversion in the 
same way that any natural phenomena come to be 
understood. They help us to see a little way into the 
mental operations concerned in conversion. They also 
make it clear that, however inexplicable, the facts of con- 
version are manifestations of natural processes. We 
accept them as natural laws, because we see them 



i 4 4 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

working here and there and everywhere in the psychic 
life. 

Each of the above phenomena seems to be the 
special thing of which conversion is the general. To 
break a habit involves one small group of tastes, or 
desires, or faculties ; conversion takes the whole bundle 
of them. It is not a surprise that a habit should be 
broken and never return. It is perhaps even more 
natural and easy that the entire group of tastes, 
desires and habits which make up a character should be 
radically changed ; it is easier to take the whole skein 
than to extricate one tangled thread. It is this fact, 
doubtless, which makes it necessary that conversion be 
a complete surrender; assurance comes only when the 
entire being is given over to the new life. As with 
habits, so with the flashes of intellectual insight we have 
just noticed; an awakening to one specific truth involves 
one faculty, the great awakening of conversion into a 
new world of spiritual insight is so inclusive that we 
fitly call it a second birth. Each of the experiences described 
above is a part, of which conversion is the whole. 



CHAPTER XII 

A GENERAL VIEW OF CONVERSION 

We have followed through the various facts of con- 
version and seen, in some detail, their mutual relations ; 
we have occasionally stopped to look into their signi- 
ficance when one set of phenomena has seemed to 
illuminate another. Now we have to view the facts as 
a whole and see them in their larger connections, and 
get at some things, if possible, which are central and 
fundamental in the process. We shall be concerned 
especially with the fuller psychological interpretation of 
the facts themselves ; but before proceeding to that, we 
shall take up some sociological, biological and physio- 
logical considerations which the study of conversion 
suggests, and which in turn tend to bring the whole 
system of facts into unity. 

A Sociological and Biological View. 

Conversion is primarily an unselfing. The first birth 
of the individual is into his own little world. He is con- 
trolled by the deep-seated instincts of self-preservation 
and self-enlargement — instincts which are, doubtless, 
a direct inheritance from his brute ancestry. The 
universe is organised around his own personality as a 
centre. He is not conscious of it, however, except in an 
instinctive, emotional way, when it tends to make or 
mar the integrity of his own individuality. His own 
will and well-being are the controlling forces within 
him. But he soon becomes a conscious being and 



146 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

moves on towards a period of self-consciousness. There 
is a world outside the self, a world-order and social 
organism whose demands begin to press in on the 
dawning consciousness. At first he is dimly conscious 
of its existence and its demands. He gropes after it, 
often painfully, to grasp its significance, and feels his 
way towards an appreciation of its worth and spiritual 
content. It is the larger world -consciousness now 
pressing in on the individual consciousness. Often it 
breaks in suddenly and becomes a great new revelation. 
This is the first aspect of conversion : the person emerges 
from a smaller \ limited world of existence into a larger 
world of being. His life becomes swallowed up in a 
larger whole. 

There is often a clash between the individual will 
and the social will, between the person's own insight and 
the spiritul order of which he is unconsciously a part. In 
the life outside of him, the standard is already set when 
he comes on the scene. It is a complex order which 
has been calling out, meanwhile, his undeveloped self in 
this way and that. His own tastes and desires, together 
with chance forces in the environment which are unduly 
strong, may shape the growing self out of tune with 
the larger established order. When the friction comes, 
it belongs to his nature to insist on himself. It is part 
of his oldest and deepest-seated instinct to present his 
own integrity. But it is a part of Nature's way to crush 
that which is out of harmony with herself. The social 
will is stronger, and the individual must at last sur- 
render himself to it. In its other aspect, then, conversion 
is the surrender of the personal will to be guided by the 
larger forces of which it is a part. These two aspects 
are often mingled. In both there is much in common. 
There is a sudden revelation and recognition of a higher 
order than that of the personal will. The sympathies 
follow the direction of the new insight, and the convert 
transfers the centre of life and activity from the part to 
the whole. With new insight comes new beauty. 
Beauty and worth awaken love — love for parents, 



A GENERAL VIEW OF CONVERSION 147 

kindred, kind, society, cosmic order, truth and spiritual 
life. The individual learns to transfer himself from a 
centre of self activity into an organ of revelation of 
universal being, and to live a life of affection for and 
oneness with the larger life outside. As a necessary 
condition of the spiritual awakening is the birth of 
fresh activity and of a larger self-consciousness, which 
often assert themselves as the dominant elements in 
consciousness. 

The period of adolescence is naturally the time for 
the awakening into the larger life. We have seen in an 
earlier chapter that conversion is fairly coincident in 
general with most rapid bodily growth and with the 
awakening on the intellectual side. There appeared to 
be a connection between puberty and conversion among 
people in the mass, although conversion follows the 
physiological changes by a little. Biologically con- 
sidered, the central thing underlying.all these phenomena 
seems to be the birth of the reproductive life. That is 
the time when the person begins vitally and physio- 
logically to reach out and find his life in another. It is 
the announcement, on the physical side, that one is 
gaining capacity to enter into the social whole through 
the avenue of the family. We shall see later that at 
the present stage in evolution the reproductive instinct 
has a negative rather than a positive significance as a 
factor in religion ; but in its biological import it con- 
ditions, in a certain sense, the great awakening on the 
physiological, psychical and spiritual sides which comes 
in adolescence. The lives of two persons united in the 
conjugal relation, each making demands on the other, 
and living for each other ; and later their offspring calling 
out the activities and affection of the parents — this con- 
stitutes the family, the centre of organised life which 
reflects the whole social order. Family life furnishes the 
.opportunity and necessity for the development of the 
individual in many new directions. He must be a 
defender of self and offspring, and so must grow strong ' 
physically ; he must provide, consequently must possess 



i 4 8 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

mental acumen ; he must utilise the natural objects 
about him in securing shelter, food and clothing, which 
necessity leads him into a knowledge of the natural 
order, and so he appreciates the truths of nature; he 
emerges suddenly into a world in which there are 
other men, and must face afresh the moral order with 
its manifold duties and obligations ; the courting 
instinct and the personal adornments and graces 
necessary for securing and maintaining a mate help to 
awaken aesthetic appreciation; 1 family life calls out the 
affections ; in short, growing out of the awakening of 
this instinct and following out its consequences, there 
are furnished the conditions for suddenly developing 
the personality rapidly in certain of its powers. Further- 
more, in those aspects of growth just mentioned, some of 
the elements of the psychic life are ripening which are 
carried up into religion. Religion, doubtless, takes up 
into itself the moral sense, truthfulness in mental re- 
presentation of the objective order, the sense of appre- 
ciation and the affections, which are awakened in the 
family and social relations. There is no vital distinction, 
presumably, between the physiological foundation of 
the psychic activity involved in the love and ties which 
exist in the family and that which enters into the love 
of God and into worship and adoration. The point of 
importance for us in this connection is that it is natural 
that in adolescence there should be a rapid development, 
which either furnishes some of the elements that directly 
enter into religion, or brings the individttal suddenly into 
such ripeness of mental capacity that religious impulses 
may have an adequate organ for their reception and 
expression. 

The religious ceremonies which cluster about this 
period among almost all people, both savage and 
civilised, seem to show not only its importance, but 
something of the way in which it has significance. A ■ 

1 For a presentation of this aspect see Colin Scott, * Sex and Art,' 
Amoican Journal of Psyclwlogy, Vol. VII., p. 153, an article keen in its 
psychological analysis, but, in my opinion, faulty in its interpretations. 



A GENERAL VIEW OF CONVERSION 149 

masterly statement of these customs is that by Dr 
Daniels, 1 in which he shows the universality of such 
observances as circumcision, knocking out the teeth, 
hair offerings, tattooing, fasting, seclusion, change of 
name, beating and torture, change of apparel, confirma- 
tion and the like, which come usually at puberty, and 
have frequently a religious significance. ' The recogni- 
tion in so many different ways, and by almost every 
race, of the transition from youth to manhood, from the 
narrow domestic circle to membership in the community, 
has deep psychological as well as physical significance. 
The boy, as a member of the family, supported by others 
and feeling almost no responsibility, when becoming 
a man enters upon a new kind of life. ... In the 
minds of these peoples there was a fixed gulf be- 
tween the life of manhood and that of childhood, and 
he who would become a man must put away " childish 
things." ... It was indeed a dying to the former life. 
Everything that might serve as a reminder of the old 
life must be scrupulously avoided/ 2 In these cere- 
monies one sees in process of development something 
of the later, more spiritual aspects of religion. 

The Physiological View. 

Among the changes of adolescence those in the 
anatomy of the nervous system furnish an important 
background for understanding the spiritual phenomena. 
We shall confine ourselves to some aspects of cerebral 
growth, since the cerebrum is the seat of the higher 
mental states. It is a well-established fact, as is shown 
from the study of the brains of children, idiots, adults 
and animals, that the character of the psychic life is 
conditioned by the quality of nervous tissue. The parts 
in the finer anatomy which are especially essential to 
mental activity are the cells for generating and storing 

1 Arthur Daniels, 'The New Life j a Study of Regeneration,' American 
Journal of Psychology , VI., No. I. 

2 Daniels, p. 19. 



iSo THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

nervous energy, and a rich network of nerve fibres, 
with fatty wrappings (medullations) for conducting the 
energy from one part of the brain to the other. The 
researches of Vulpius, Kaes and Flechsig 1 have shown 
that at birth there are no medullated fibres in the grey 
matter of the cerebrum, although the lower nerve centres 
which condition the reflexes are richly fibrillated ; that 
is, the life of a new-born child is controlled entirely by the 
reflexes in the lower nerve centres, and not at all by the 
representative faculty. The medullated fibres increase 
rapidly during childhood, and gradually during later 
years, as late at least as about 40. The fibrillation is 
not homogeneous in the different parts of the cerebrum. 
The three layers of tangential fibres near the surface of 
the brain, which, presumably, partially determine the 
complexity of mental associations, do not develop 
simultaneously. Dr Burk sums up the results of 
Vulpius's work thus: — ' The fibres of the inner layer 
develop their sheaths (medullations) in all cases earlier, 
and in the motor, sight and hearing regions almost 
reach their maximum in number during the second 
year, while in the speech and other centres there is a 
gradual increase until the eleventh year, and a later 
gradual increment until the thirty-third year at least. 
The outer layer fibres follow in general the course of 
growth of the inner layer, but contain generally from 
one-eighth to one-half as many ; the middle layer in no 
case makes an appreciable increase until puberty, grows 
more rapidly in the earlier adult years, and never con- 
tains more than a third as many fibres as the inner 
layer/ 2 The significant fact is that the inner layer, 
which develops contemporaneously with the senses, and 
the outer layer, which is relatively the most important 
in the lower animals, develop first, while the middle 

1 For a summary of these researches see Donaldson's Growth of the 
Brain, 1 895, chap. xii. 

2 Frederick Burk, ' From fundamental to accessory in the develop- 
ment of the nervous system,' Pedagogical Seminary, Oct. 1898, p. 5* 
The reference to Vulpius is Archiv, f. Psychiat. u. Nerven Krank> Bd. 
XXIII., 1892. 



A GENERAL VIEW OF CONVERSION 151 

layer does not increase rapidly until adolescence, the 
period we are now considering. Dr Kaes concludes 
from a study of the brains of idiots that the second and 
third Meynert layers, which are likewise between the 
inner and outer tangential layers, are essential to 
psychic unfoldment. 1 While the function of the differ- 
ent groups of fibres in its relation to mental life is not 
clearly determined, it is instructive to note the corre- 
spondence in time between the rapid psychic develop- 
ment at adolescence and the increment in the growth of 
a new band of association fibres. It seems that the 
great psychic awakening may be conditioned by either 
of two things : either there is a new crop of nerve branches 
which rapidly reach functional maturity, or those which 
have already matured come suddenly into activity. This 
furnishes the basis of the power of the mind for seeing 
in general terms, for intellectual grasp, and for spiritual 
insight. Experimental psychology reinforces this notion 
in demonstrating, as we saw in Chapter II., that the sen- 
sory activities and memory have almost completed their 
development during the years up to about 12, and 
then give way to development on the side of rational 
power. The anatomical basis for this transition in 
development is found in Hughlings Jackson's three- 
level theory of the nervous system, or in Flechsig's 
association centres. Dr Burk has shown that these are 
practically identical both in function and localisation. 2 
According to Jackson's arrangement, the lowest level 
contains the simple reflex movements and involuntary 
reactions, and is especially localised in the spinal cord, 
medulla and pons. The second level * re-groups these 
simple movements by combinations and associations 
of cortical structures in wider, more complex mechan- 
isms, producing a higher class of movements. The 
highest level unifies the whole nervous system/ ' The 
lowest level does menial work ; the highest level, evolved 

1 Frederick Burk, ' From fundamental to accessory in the develop- 
ment of the nervous system,' Pedagogical Seminary, Oct. 1898, p. 6. 

2 Ibid., p. 14. 



iS2 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

out of it, becomes in great decree independent of it, and 
is the anatomical basis of mind/ ' The highest level 
centres are nothing else than the centres of universal 
and complex representation, ... or, using old-fashioned 
language, they are the whole organism.' Flechsig con- 
tends that the associational areas in the brain, which 
Burk believes are the same as Jackson's third level, 
occupy two-thirds of the cortex, have nothing to do 
with sensory-motor processes of the body, but have the 
' function of knowledge, of interpreting experience, of 
the aesthetic sentiments, of the scientific decisions, of the 
moral judgments/ etc. 1 In this point of view, conver- 
sion may be the sudden functioning of Hughlings 
Jackson's highest level, or Flechsig's associational areas, 
and the transfer of the personality to this centre. Some 
such view tends to bring harmony among the facts. 
The rapid formation of new nerve connections in early 
adolescence may be the cause of the physiological un- 
rest and mental distress that intensifies into what we 
have called the sense of incompleteness which precedes 
conversion. The mind becomes a ferment of half- 
formed ideas, as the brain is a mesh of poorly organised 
parts. The pain and ache of the conviction period is an 
indication of high potentials of nervous energy which find 
no outlet of expression ; in other words, it is clogged 
mental activity. It is the exact opposite of the pleasure 
of self-expression, such as that of the young animal which 
gives vent to its energy in gamboling, or that of the 
artist in painting or the musician in playing. Through 
heredity, doubtless, the brain is endowed with certain 
structural elements and latent energies which antedate 
their functional activity. The * sense of sin ' is the 
indication that they are trying to function — that the 
brute is pressing on to become a man. In its biological 
significance the sense of imperfection is the price we 

1 Frederick Burk, ' From fundamental to accessory in the develop- 
ment of the nervous system,' Pedagogical Seminary, Oct. 1898, p. II, sum- 
marising from Die Localization der geistigen Vorgange i/ibeso?ide?-e der 
SinnesempfindungeH) 1896. 



A GENERAL VIEW OF CONVERSION 153 

have to pay for the massive, and at first unwieldy, en- 
largement at the top end of the spinal cord, which, when 
mastered and brought into requisition, becomes such a 
tremendous tool and organ of spiritual insight. The 
person is restless to be born into a larger world. 
Finally, through wholesome suggestions, normal de- 
velopment, helped on perhaps by some emotional stress 
or shock, harmony is struck, life becomes a unity, and 
the person is born into a larger world of spirit. 

The Psychological View. 

The physiological background of consciousness, while 
it furnishes a basis for understanding conversion, is in- 
adequate of itself to explain it. It is necessary to 
approach it from the standpoint of the growth and 
interplay of ideas. In this point of view conversion is 
the sudden readjustment to a larger spiritual environ- 
ment when once the norm has been lost, or when it is 
dimly felt, but not yet attained. We have, then, to 
consider how life gets awry with its surroundings, how 
a breach arises between its spiritual impulses and its 
present attainment, and then how the breach is finally 
healed. In understanding the discord between the 
subjective life and the larger possible life, there are at 
least three things to be considered — the growth of 
ideals, native inertia, and the complexity of environ- 
mental forces which tend to call the person into activity. 

In the first place, the attainment of that condition 
which makes conversion necessary has its seat primarily 
in the anticipatory power of the mind. The mind can 
forecast experience; on the basis of what is, it can look 
ahead and divine what might be. The possible is lifted 
up above the present. An ideal is formed in advance of 
the real. The experience out of which the ideal arises 
is usually complex and manifold, so that it is not seen 
clearly. On the contrary, one has an inkling of it 
— a scent of something better, a feeling after it. 
From the standpoint of a possible ideal self one can 



154 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

look back on the present self and judge it The 
contrast between them is emphasised, and a chasm 
forms between the self which now is and that which 
might be. 

This condition is emphasised, secondly, by native 
inertia. A noted divine has said that ' Sin is laziness.' 
The push toward enlightenment and righteousness is 
an uphill process. The moment one relaxes he is in 
danger of being dragged down by ingrained, instinctive, 
racial impulses. 

The discord is heightened, thirdly, by the variety 
and complexity of impulses to action, and by the 
number of forces in one's surroundings which tend to 
call one out in this way and that. In reply to the 
questions, 'What acts or faults have you committed 
which you knew at the time were wrong? Why did 
you do them ? ' the answers are instructive. They show 
the possibility of slipping into inharmonious relation- 
ships with one's environment. F. ' My mother had 
positively forbidden me to visit one of my friends, and 
many times I wilfully disobeyed her, because the attrac- 
tion of my friend's society was stronger than my sense 
of right.' F. ' I used to be fond of jumping-rope, but 
mother forbade me to do it. At school I disobeyed, 
because I thought mother need never know of it; all 
the other girls jump ropes without falling dead, and I 
wouldn't meet with any accident either.' F. ' I refused 
to sing at a school entertainment because mamma would 
not let me wear a certain dress. I felt satisfied to think 
I got out of singing it, but felt an inward voice chiding 
me. On the whole I thought I was a very bad girl, and 
did not want to think of it.' Such instances are appar- 
ently very numerous. They all illustrate how there are 
complexities in the subjective life, and also in one's 
surroundings, which tend to fracture the unity and 
symmetry of consciousness. The wrong acts performed 
knowingly were of two classes. First, there were those 
in which associations and social complications led the 
person against his or her private judgment or teaching 



A GENERAL VIEW OF CONVERSION 155 

into a wrong course ; for example, in the instance above 
in which the child was playing between the mother's 
will, on the one hand, and the sports in vogue in the 
school and the fascination of doing as the rest did, on 
the other. A selection of alternatives, either of which 
may bring discomfort, is necessary. There is a hitch, 
consequently, in what Mr Spencer terms ' the progres- 
sive adjustment of inner and outer relations.' In the 
second place, there is the complexity of tastes, desires 
and impulses, any one of which may get the upper 
hand and assert itself. Often an immediate desire in 
which wilfulness or an abnormal taste plays a part 
is stronger than a remote, truer one. In one quota- 
tion above, for instance, the attraction of a friend's 
society was more immediate and pressing than the 
duty of obedience. 

The ability to forecast experience, together with this 
complexity of impulses, complicates the situation still 
more. The will is paralysed, in the presence of many 
possibilities of action. The something-to-be-said-on- 
both-sides, of Will Wimble, whose dilemma is not 
serious enough to check the flow of his vitality, may 
grow into the perplexity of a Hamlet when the con- 
flicting possibilities of action are vital and momentous. 
This is one aspect of the mal-adjustment of life that 
may come with growth. Each impulse to action is 
inhibited by others which have equal right to express 
themselves. 

Enough has been said to show clearly the possible 
causes leading up to conversion. There are forces 
in human life and its surroundings which tend to break 
the unity and harmony of consciousness ; and its unity 
once destroyed, the contrast between what is, and zvhat 
might be, gives birth to ideals and sets two selves in 
sharp opposition to each other. This fracture in con- 
sciousness which gives rise to the ideal set off against 
the present self is frequently beneath the threshold of 
consciousness, and shows itself as an organic discontent, 
a struggling in the dark, a reaching out after an inde- 



156 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

finable ideal There are many instances, however, in 
which the person is conscious of the vacillation between 
two lives. As in the classic instance of Paul, there are 
two members warring against each other. F., 14. ' I 
had an anxiety to come out on the Lord's side, with 
conflicting doubts and distrust as to being able to reach 
and maintain the standard of excellence/ F. ' I would 
tell myself, " You ought to join the church " ; then I 
would say, " No, you can't be good enough." ' M., 23. 
1 During my sickness (two years previous to conversion) 
I determined to be a better boy. I did live a better 
life, but often yielded to wrong. Two years later I 
was listening very attentively to the song, " Come home, 
come home, your Father calls, Come home." I seemed 
to see, as by the light of a flash of lightning in darkest 
midnight, the holiness of God, of Heaven, of the Father's 
house, etc., and the uncleanness of my poor heart, its 
diseases, its pollution and corruption.' The following 
instance is a type of immature natures, in which the 
duality and conflict are at first felt in an organic way, 
and objectified as the anger of God and the fear of 
punishment, but with the growth of self-consciousness 
the two selves stand off against each other: F., 12. ' I 
do not remember the time when I did not feel that I 
ought to be a Christian, but was not willing to yield. 
I felt that God was angry with me on account of my 
sin, and would punish me if I did not repent My con- 
version was simply giving up my own will and being 
willing to be guided by God's will. At first there was 
a feeling of peace, then began the strife between good 
and evil. The roots of bitterness were still there. It 
seemed as if the evil had only been stirred up and 
turned loose, as it were. I was practically two people. 
I wanted to be good, but could not. I would continu- 
ally do things that I did not want to do, but could not 
help doing them.' This is an illustration of the con- 
dition which normally precedes conversion, and which 
the change of heart must heal. Conversion is suddenly 
forsaking the lower for the higher self, In terms of the 



A GENERAL VIEW OF CONVERSION 157 

neural basis of consciousness, it is inhibition of lower 
channels of nervous discharge through the establish- 
ment of higher connections and identification of the ego 
with the new activities. In theological terminology it 
is Christ coming into the heart and the old life being 
blotted out — the human life swallowed up in the life of 
God. 

The method nature employs in healing the breach 
between the two selves is usually not to lessen the 
conflict but rather to heighten it. It is the nature of 
the mind to emphasise contrasts. It dwells on the 
far-awayness of the ideal life and the extreme un- 
worthiness of the old life. The effect is cumulative 
even when the person is left alone, as in the instance 
quoted previously, in which the person felt she would die 
that very summer unless the sought-for relief came, or in 
another one, in which the man's sense of sin rapidly grew 
into a dreadful fear that he had grieved the Holy Spirit. 
This seems to be nature's way of making the changed 
attitude significant when it comes. Religious workers 
take advantage of this tendency in the methods they 
employ. The method of one of the most successful 
revivalists in convicting of sin is shown by this extract 
from an address. ' At the close of a recent meeting a 
lady came to me and said, " Mr Moody, I have been a 
professing Christian for five years, and I am more irrit- 
able, I have less patience and less control over my 
temper than I had five years ago. Don't you think 
that is wrong?" "Wrong?" I said; "that is a sin." 
She thought it was a kind of weakness. I went to 
work to convince her that it was a downright sin for 
her to be short-tempered and all that. . . . The work of 
the Holy Ghost is to convict of sin. O that the power 
of conviction might come right here ! . . . There is no 
power on earth like a quickened church, and it won't be 
quickened until we begin to think of sin.' Evil is un- 
covered and shown in its true character, together with 
the fatal consequences which impend if the present 
course is continued. The person is exposed as the 



158 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

responsible agent in its results. The hope of heaven 
and eternal happiness, as contrasted with endless pun- 
ishment, is appealed to. Occasionally the beauty of a 
virtuous life is held up in contrast with the agencies of 
sin. The urgency of the present moment is em- 
phasised as a possible last opportunity. Every means 
is used to make the fracture in consciousness 
between the two selves complete, and to make the 
transfer of the personality to the new centre decisive 
and final. 

It is through these means and through the normal 
mental activities by which the sen';e of guilt is deepened 
that the two aspects of conviction, the sense of incom- 
pleteness and the sense of sin — the one the precursor of 
spontaneous awakening into new life, and the other leading 
toward an escape from sinful habits — tend to become 
the same. There are certain essential differences be- 
tween the two types which we should not fail to dis- 
tinguish. The kind of awakening following the sense 
of incompleteness is, as we have noticed heretofore, a 
blossoming out into new life by the natural processes of 
growth. The nerve elements have matured, which are 
about to function on a higher level. The situation 
preceding conversion is presumably somewhat analogous 
to the tension in a basin of standing water, which has 
more than reached the freezing point, and only needs a 
shock to cause the atoms to fall into new relations and 
suddenly to congeal; or it is like elements held in solu- 
tion which only need the slightest addition of some 
substance to cause a precipitation. The other type is 
primarily an eruptive breaking-up of evil habits and 
abnormal tastes and cravings, by turning the life forces 
along new channels. In their purest forms the one is 
the normal adolescent development in a healthy, virtuous, 
but immature person, about whose consciousness a larger 
life is hovering and pressing for recognition, and finally 
breaks in ; the other is the reformation of a drunkard, 
for instance, who pushes on in his own course, until 
dissipation of power and physical and mental exhaus- 



A GENERAL VIEW OF CONVERSION 159 



tion make it necessary to surrender the old self for a 
truer one. He has swerved from the straight and narrow 
path, representing the norm of human experience. If 
the line representing the norm were one side of a 
triangle, the way actually pursued would be represented 
by the other two sides. 

But the two types have so much in common that in 
many respects they can be discussed together. Both 
involve the breaking-up of old habits (an imperfect, 
undeveloped life has its set modes of activity which 
must give way to those which the new insight entails — 
in this sense, ' all have sinned.') Both involve a revela- 
tion of new truth; both are attended by a conflict 
between an accepted course of action, and a truer one 
which is dawning. 

Something like what seems to take place in both 
cases is shown in Figure 11. In No. (1) of the figure, 








(1) Conviction. 



(2) Crisis. 



(3) New life. 



the lines going in the direction (a) represent the way 
old habits, associations, tastes and ideas tend to carry 
the current of life. Lines going in the direction (b) are 
the beginnings of a possible better life, purer associa- 
tions, co-operation with others, love of truth, a glimpse 
into a larger spiritual world beyond the self. Thus the 
even flow and harmony of life is destroyed. The person 
is pulled in two directions. This conflict between the 
old habitual self and a possible better one results in 
those conviction phenomena described as the sense of 



160 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

sin, and the feeling of incompleteness. As the call 
toward the new life becomes more urgent, the situation 
is shown in No. (2) of the figure, (c) is the habitual 
self striving with all its might to preserve its self-con- 
sistency, (d) is the divine urging which has become 
imperative and irresistible. Here is the critical point, 
the tragic moment. The person resorts to evasion of 
good influences, pointing out the perfection of the present 
self, the imperfections of others, and anything to preserve 
the old self intact. It is more often a distress, a deep 
indefinable feeling of reluctance, which is perhaps a 
complex of all the surface considerations that a thorough 
break in habits and associations would involve. It 
continues until complete exhaustion takes away the 
power of striving — the person becomes nothing ; his 
will is broken ; he surrenders himself to the higher 
forces that are trying to claim him ; he accepts the 
higher life as his own. The next stage is shown 
in No. (3). Only a vestige of the old life (e) is left. 
The new life (/*) is now the real self. The conflict has 
ceased and there is relief. The depression is gone, and 
gives place to joy. The pain from friction between con- 
tending forces becomes now the pleasure of free activity. 
Harmony is restored, and there is peace. The facts in 
the preceding study nearly all seem to fit into such a 
scheme. «Let us test it by seeing what harmony it 
brings among the diverse experiences which were 
thought to be the essential things in the point of transi- 
tion in conversion — self-surrender, determination, for- 
giveness, Divine aid, public confession, spontaneous 
awakening, and sense of oneness with God. * Self- 
surrender ' and ' new determination ' seem at first entirely 
contradictory experiences, which follow somewhat simi- 
lar conviction states and precede similar post-conversion 
phenomena. They are really the same thing. Self-sur- 
render sees the change in terms of the old self; deter- 
mination sees it in terms of the new. Each overlooks, for 
the time, one fact — self-surrender does not consider that 
the best of the old life enters the new, and that really 



A GENERAL VIEW OF CONVERSION 161 

nothing is given up; and, on the other hand, determina- 
tion does not stop to estimate its losses. The frequent 
phrase, ' determined to yield/ stands half-way between, 
and expresses, perhaps, more nearly the truth of the 
process. When the change is attributed to 'divine aid/ 
the new forces which come to lead one into a larger life 
are entirely objectified and become the influence of some 
outside personality or spirit. ' Forgiveness ' involves 
the same tendency to objectify the forces at work, and 
also the sense that the old life is no more — has been 
forgiven. The relation between those cases in which 
personal effort and choice are exercised, and those in 
which the change is brought about by an external 
agent, thus becomes clear. When conscious self-direc- 
tion is exercised, it indicates that the ' I ' has kept pace 
with the growth processes, and is a participant in them ; 
while in the case of forgiveness of sin and divine inter- 
vention, growth has proceeded unconsciously, the per- 
sonality has unwittingly advanced, and instead of being 
the participant, it is the ' me/ the passive agent in the 
change, and a receiver of the new life. The feeling of 
'oneness' (with God or Christ) is the experience in 
which the most prominent thing which presents itself 
at the time is the sense of freedom and harmony that 
follows the change, and the consciousness that the life 
is now the completer embodiment of the larger spiritual 
world. ' Public confession ' is much the same as ' oneness 
with God/ To the nature which has not yet grown into 
the power of deep intuitions, the sanction of friends, 
compliance with church rites, and the like, stand more 
distinctly for oneness with God. The same person 
more highly developed might have described the central 
thing in a similar experience as harmony with the will 
of God. 

The experiences immediately following conversion 
are such as would naturally come after the steps 
described. Psychologically, they are in line with the 
facts of fatigue and rest, of repression followed by 
release, and of the pleasure in the exercise of a newly- 



i62 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

acquired power. The essential thing in it is the iden- 
tification of the self with the new world of persons and 
spiritual relations into which it is born. At its best it 
is the individual will coming into harmony with what 
it feels to be the Divine Will. 



CHAPTER XIII 

THE ABNORMAL ASPECT OF CONVERSION 

No two persons will agree upon the limit at which 
normal religious experiences pass over into pathological. 
Where the line of demarcation will fall depends largely 
on one's general attitude toward religion, and on one's 
temperamental attitude toward human experiences, 
which allows them a wide or narrow range. There are 
the alienists, too, who are constantly on the lookout for 
some abnormal tendency, and, consequently, are sure to 
find it. According to their standard the whole con- 
version phenomenon is to be regarded as abnormal. 
Dr Boris Sid is, for example, in his Psychology of Sug- 
gestion, remarks, in regard to the article of which this 
study is a revision, ' What Mr Starbuck does not realise 
is the fact that it is not healthy, normal life that 
one studies in sudden religious conversions, but the 
phenomena of revival insanity/ 1 

In a kindly review of a subsequent article on re- 
ligious growth, the Philadelphia Medical Journal says : 
* Dr Starbuck himself does not apparently realise the 
full force of his work in the domain of psychiatry, but it 
is especially to this aspect of it that we have been 
attracted/ In the point of view of this journal, what 
we have termed the ' sense of sin ' would be more fairly 
regarded as a pathological phenomenon. * It should 
never be forgotten, however, that this form of psychalgia, 
or mental pain (the sense of sin), from whatever cause, 
is the fundamental lesion in perhaps the largest group 
l O/>. tit., p. 354. 
163 



1 64 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

of cases of mental alienation, i.e., melancholia/ The 
alienist thinks in terms of psychiatry. He casts his 
pathological net, and anything sufficiently exaggerated 
above commonplaceness so that it cannot slip through 
the meshes he claims as his. Religionists, on the other 
hand, are liable to have an apperceptive faculty which 
colours whatever happens in connection with the 
nominally religious as a divine manifestation. No ex- 
cesses of excitement, no hypnosis, no diseased imagin- 
ings, provided they have the cloak of religion, are too 
extreme to be regarded by certain persons as normal 
and healthy. 

It is not my purpose, in the present volume, to try 
to discriminate between normal and abnormal religious 
experiences. In the preceding chapters I have taken 
the records regarded by the subjects as normal, and 
studied them, first among themselves to get a larger 
conception of their nature, and then to see how they fit 
in with other facts in human life, and to what extent 
they are interpretable in terms of accepted physiological 
and psychological laws. In this chapter, likewise, I 
shall take certain experiences which are looked upon 
by the respondents as abnormal, and see how they fit 
in with the supposedly normal phenomena, and what 
possibilities they expose for thwarting the ends of 
religious growth. The testimony of the respondents, 
then, is our standard of judging the two classes of 
normal and abnormal. This is by no means a satis- 
factory test, but the only one at present available. 
There is no more important question, from both a 
scientific and a practical standpoint, than that of de- 
termining in what persons and under what circumstances 
a sudden religious awakening is desirable. The ultimate 
test, doubtless, will be, does it contribute, in the long 
run, in the individual and in groups of individuals, to 
permanent growth? The settlement of such a question 
far exceeds the maturity of the psychology of religion. 
The hope at present is to make clear certain plain laws 
of growth, and to disclose the pitfalls, so that it may be 



THE ABNORMAL ASPECT OF CONVERSION 165 

possible to apply oneself more tactfully to the cultiva- 
tion of the spiritual life. In the attempt to establish a 
standard of judgment for the abnormal elements in 
religion, there are two extremes which should be 
avoided ; on the one hand, that of the thorough-going 
alienist, who brands everything that rises above the 
dead level of experience as pathological, and who, for 
instance, convicts Wagner of megalomania and Ibsen of 
egomania, and looks upon any experience which takes 
account in a vital way of the blackness of sin or the joy 
which accompanies religious insight, simply as mental 
aberration ; and, on the other hand, that of the radical 
religionist, who looks upon the most violent excess as a 
manifestation of the Spirit, provided only it be carried 
out in the name of religion. 

One of the most commonly accepted principles of 
mental activity is that any normal process, if freed from 
its inhibitions and carried to an extreme, becomes 
pathological. It is of extreme importance in consider- 
ing anything so complex and delicate as the religious 
instinct — especially when it is liable to be wrought upon 
vigorously, as is done in the crisis called conversion 
— to stop and observe some of the danger points, at 
which people may easily be led beyond the limits of 
the normal, and thereby suffer irretrievable loss. 

The most glaring danger is found in the emotionalism 
and excitement of religious revivals. The effect is to 
induce a state of mere feeling which, when it has 
passed, leaves no spiritual residuum ; to drive persons 
to irrational conduct, so that when the reaction sets in, 
they reject not only their first profession, but the whole 
of religion. This cannot be better illustrated than by 
quoting from two or three typical records. The follow- 
ing was written by a person who has since worked his 
way to a positive religious experience, and is an in- 
fluential pastor in a large city : ' I automatically went 
to church and Sunday school, with the general attitude 
toward religion of indifference. The forces which led 
to my conversion (at 15) seem to me now hypnotic in 



1 66 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

character. My will seemed wholly at the mercy of 

others, particularly of the revivalist M . There was 

absolutely no intellectual element ; I did not think of 
dogma or doctrine ; it was pure feeling. There followed 
a period of ecstasy. I was bent on doing good, and 
was eloquent in appealing to others. The state of moral 
exaltation did not continue ; it was followed by a com- 
plete relapse from orthodox religion. I look back upon 
my experience now with shame and repugnance. It 
was an unnatural state, and could not be maintained/ 

Here is another instance, to represent many of its 
kind, of a woman, now a teacher in one of the prominent 
colleges, who succumbed to the irresistible force of the 
ensemble^ and was forced to simulate religion without 
possessing it : ' I had been carefully trained, and had 
received more than an ordinary amount of religious 
and biblical instruction. The winter that I was n, a 
series of revival meetings was being held, to which I 
was taken. I attended some half-dozen without re- 
ceiving any impression. At the very last meeting the 
usual appeal was made for those to rise who wished 
to be on the Lord's side. There was considerable 
excitement. In the midst of it I rose and remained 
standing. I think I had no conscious motive in taking 
this step. I was simply carried away by the excitement, 
and did not know what I did. If any influence came in, 
it was love for my mother, who sat beside me, bowed in 
prayer. I felt that she wished me to rise, and yet the 
knowledge was something I felt after rather than before 
I rose. I was much excited, and became hysterical 
under the emotions aroused and under the prevailing 
excitement. ... I was taken apart with others and 

talked with, and as a result joined the P church 

the next Sunday. . . . The experiences had been un- 
natural, and therefore could not last. I lived for a 
short time, perhaps six months, under an unnatural 
excitement, and then relapsed into a state of utter 
indifference. I feel now that the result of the " con- 
version " was bad, for I felt that I had done all that was 



THE ABNORMAL ASPECT OF CONVERSION 167 

to be done, and therefore made no effort to grow. And 
I may say I lived a lie, for I knew I ought not to belong 
to the church ; yet, because it was easy to say nothing, 
I let everyone believe I was a truly converted Christian. 
I remained in this state until my S ophomore year in college, 
w r hen I accepted with some degree of intellectual under- 
standing the chief doctrines of the Christian church, and 
can now call myself "converted/' though I was not before.' 
In producing such results, the influence of the mob- 
mind is an important factor. The force of the popular 
mind in religious movements is not to be distinguished 
from its exercise in political campaigns, in battle, in 
mobs and strikes, and the like. Everyone who is 
familiar with the methods of revivalists knows how 
perfectly they coincide with those of the ' leaders of 
crowds ' described by M. Le Bon. ' When it is pro- 
posed to imbue the mind of a crowd with ideas and 
belief — with modern social theories, for instance — the 
leaders have recourse to different expedients. The 
principal of them are three in number, and clearly 
defined — affirmation, repetition and contagion. . . . 
Affirmation pure and simple, kept free of all reasoning 
and all proof, is one of the surest means of making an 
idea enter the mind of crowds. . . . Affirmation, how- 
ever, has no real influence unless it be repeated, and so 
far as possible in the same terms. The influence of 
repetition is due to the fact that the repeated statement 
is embedded in the long run in the profound regions of 
our unconscious selves, in which the motives of our 
actions are forged. . . . When an affirmation has been 
sufficiently repeated, and there is unanimity in its repeti- 
tion, what is called a current of opinion is formed, and 
the powerful mechanism of contagion intervenes/ 1 The 
influence of religious leaders and of mob-mind in arous- 
ing great movements is not so strong at the present 
time as formerly. Earlier in the present century it was 
not uncommon for the contagion to be so striking 
as to induce marked physiological symptoms in entire 

1 Gustav Le Bon, The Crowds 1896, p. 126 et seq* 



i68 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

audiences. They were often seized en masse with the 
4 jerks/ an epileptic condition of the muscular system, 1 
or by trances, in which the muscles were completely 
relaxed or permanently rigid. The trance phenomena 
are not infrequent in certain localities at the present 
time. From the psycho-physiological standpoint, the 
results of mob action seem to be to produce a relaxed 
state in the cerebral centres, which frees the lower 
centres from the inhibitory control of the higher, and 
thus renders the mind more suggestible. It is to be 
noted, accordingly, that the will is paralysed, as in the 
two instances just quoted. In extreme cases there is 
i no thought of dogma or doctrine/ as would be true in 
the relaxed condition of the cortical centres, which are 
the seat of the intellectual functions. (It will be re- 
called that in normal conversions the conscious element 
was relatively small.) Shouting and springing over 
benches, in which negroes often indulge, the sense of 
' walking on air/ rising without knowing it, and the like, 
seem to indicate the unchecked activity of the lower 
centres. The sensuality which sometimes breaks out in 
the midst of great religious excitement seems to show 
the same thing — relaxation of the control of the higher 
centres over the lower. To be sure, the conscious 
element is always to some degree present. ' There is 
no suggestion without consciousness/ says Moll. 2 But 
the quality of consciousness is doubtless of the kind Dr 
Scott attributes to the art psychosis. It is ' essentially 
a state of ecstasy, with a tendency to produce a slight 
obsessional climax ' 3 in a certain direction. This 
climax is, as already observed, in the direction deter- 
mined by the drift of the unconscious factors of the 
psychic life, and by the force of suggestion at the time. 
Trance states would seem to be the result of an over 
emphasis and irradiation of the relaxation and anaesthesia 

1 See, for instance, The Life and Woj-ks of Peter Cartzvright. 

2 Albert Moll, Hypnotism (Contemporary Science Series), 4th edition, 
1897, p. 289. 

3 Colin Scott, ' Sex and Art,' American Journal of Psychology, Vol. 
VII., p. 221. 



THE ABNORMAL ASPECT OF CONVERSION 169 

which begin in the higher centres, and work until con- 
sciousness is obliterated, and only the muscular centres are 
active, thus producing a cataleptic condition of the body. 
Whatever be the explanation of the phenomena, they 
are sufficiently striking to emphasise both the strength 
and danger of religious excitement. The dangers of 
mob-mind are even greater in this sphere than in almost 
any other. The strength of concerted action and con- 
tagion in politics or war is that something is to be done 
— a majority vote is to be cast, or a city to be taken. 
But in the spiritual life, not only is the right emotional 
attitude necessary, which the voter or warrior must 
possess, but there must be some rational sanction of 
conduct. The warrior has the fallen city walls after- 
ward as a token that his action was worth while, 
although in the heat of battle he may have been simply 
driven on by the excitement of the occasion. The sup- 
posed convert, who has been overwrought, if he has not 
maturity enough to judge results by spiritual standards, 
or, which is saying the same thing, if he was not ripe for 
the proposed change of heart, comes to himself on a 
barren plain, and wonders what it was all about. The 
danger is not simply that nothing of permanent good 
comes to the person whose feelings are too highly 
wrought upon, but that positive injury results from such 
measures. Some persons rebel against the whole 
institution which employs them. One young man, 
whose ' feelings had been worked up by a story-telling 
revivalist/ calls it 'a gold brick deal/ and remarks, ' It 
almost made me an infidel. I have hardly been in a 
church since/ The following notes were written by an 
observer of an excited revival, in which the meetings 
were held until early morning. Some persons, in the 
midst of the excitement, lay prostrate on the floor, one 
crawled on hands and knees about the aisles, and some 
went into trance. ' I know that one young man, who 
was a teacher in our school, went to the Board soon 
afterward ' (the writer is a member of the School Board) 
* and told them that he was very sorry for and ashamed 



170 



THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 



of the part he had taken, and that he was not fully him- 
self at the time. He was a good man before, and is 
still an active, discreet Christian worker. The seven- 
teen-year-old girl I spoke of, who lay in what they called 
a trance for nineteen hours, has never been able to take 
more than one study in school since. She is very 
nervous, and doesn't seem to have grown religiously, as 
far as an outsider can see. Three of those who took a 
very prominent part in the meeting seem to have grown 
cold, and are seldom at a place of worship. The rest of 
those who were active seem about as they did before, 

except A L . She does seem to be growing 

religiously ; but I fancy those meetings were not the 
cause of her growth, nor were they the beginning of it/ 

The president of a college writes : ' Once at W 

occurred one of those overheated revivals. Under the 
pressure, scores made professions, loud and high; to-day 
the effects have largely disappeared. I once witnessed 
a religious awakening of a milder type, wherein a whole 
neighbourhood was transformed. Scarcely one who 
professed ever renounced his profession, or ceased to 
lead a godly life/ A pastor furnishes these statistics of 
the results, in a single community, of revivals which 
were conducted by an imported evangelist : — 





Number 
Received. 


1 Dropped ' 

before 

6 weeks. 


Received 

into full 

memb'ship. 


Of those received in full. 




Relapsed 
since. 


Now in 

good 
standing. 


I. Converts in Re- 
vival Meetings 
conducted by 
a Professional 
Evangelist 

II. Converts in 
Regular Church 
Work (at Home, 
Sunday School, 
Revival by 
Pastor, etc.) 


92 

6S 


62 
16 


30 

52 


15 
10 


12 

41 



THE ABNORMAL ASPECT OF CONVERSION 171 

It will have been already observed that one of the 
forces working in revivals is that of suggestion and 
hypnotism. The tactics used by the revivalists are in 
many respects similar to those of the hypnotist. Not to 
speak of the series of meetings, with their constant 
reiteration of the fact of sin and the need of salvation, or 
of the stimulus of the crowd and the force of example 
which tend to subdue the will of the most recalcitrant, a 
glance at the methods employed by certain evangelists 
of influencing the 'seeker* while at the altar are signifi- 
cant. The preacher kneels with the person under 
conviction, often with laying on of hands, and repeats 
over and over in a slow, monotonous tone, full of feeling, 
such phrases as ' Christ is knocking at the door of your 
heart/ i If only you have faith in His power to save/ 
* Christ is waiting to forgive/ ' He died on the Cross to 
save me, even me/ ' Now you believe/ etc. It is 
preferable that the congregation sing while the process 
is going on. The absolute necessity of faith is 
emphasised, just as in hypnotism it is understood that 
no effect can be produced without the willingness of the 
subject. If one person's suggestions fail, the 'workers' 
take turns until conviction is finally implanted in the 
seeker's mind, and he acts upon it, accepts the power of 
Christ to save, and becomes, in attitude at least, a new 
creature. The unconscious suggestions under such 
circumstances perhaps far outweigh the verbal ones. 
It will be readily seen that these methods are 
similar to those by which a subject is brought 
under the control of a hypnotist, and they have 
been the means of an untold amount of criminality 
when they have become the tool of ignorant or selfish 
persons. 

Professor Coe, in the research already referred to, 
has studied in detail the connection between the abrupt- 
ness of religious experience and suggestibility. It will 
be remembered that he divided the subjects into three 
groups : I., persons who expected a transformation and 
experienced it; II., those who expected it but were 



172 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

disappointed ; and III., those who belonged to both the 
above classes. 

Of the 14 cases in Group I., 13 are of the passive 
type. Of the 12 persons in Group II., 9 clearly belong 
to the spontaneous type, 1 is entirely passive, and 2 are 
open to some doubt. From these results it appears 
highly probable that much of the phenomenal display 
of feeling in revivals is the sequence of hypnotic 
suggestion. 

Now, it cannot be too clearly pointed out that 
religious hypnosis is not an evil in itself; on the contrary, 
it is a valuable tool that nature has put in the hands 
of all persons who have to deal with people for the 
accomplishment of worthy ends. It is only in its abuse 
that it becomes an evil. We are coming to see that 
suggestion (which is not distinguishable from hypnot- 
ism) is a most efficient means in any sort of education. 
The wise teacher is the one who induces a right 
emotional attitude, and so directs the will in the 
direction of ideal conduct. It is coming to be com- 
monly accepted that the therapeutics of suggestion, 
when administered under the direction of a physician, 
is a legitimate way of eradicating certain faults in 
children. 1 It is coming into more general use, also, in 
the alleviation of diseases. Moll, in defending its use 
among physicians, goes so far as to say, ' I believe, with 
Krafft-Ebing, Fr. Miiller and others, that no important 
effect can be obtained in most functional neuroses with- 
out suggestion. I think that hardly any of the newest 
discoveries are so important to the art of healing, apart 
from surgery, as the study of suggestion. . . . The con- 
clusion that neither hypnotism nor suggestion will again 
disappear from the foreground in medicine is justified. 
This hope is grounded on the fact that there are in 
Germany a number of practical doctors, not carried 
away by enthusiasm, who study suggestion, and do not 
look for hasty successes and " miraculous " cures/ 2 The 

1 See; for example, A. Moll, Hypnotism, p. 363 et seq. 

2 Op. a/., p. 354. 



THE ABNORMAL ASPECT OF CONVERSION 173 

religious worker, who is a real psychologist, with high 
and pure motives, who possesses the tact and skill to 
free a soul through wise suggestion from the trammels 
that hold it within too narrow limits, and can set all its 
powers functioning in the direction of its normal growth, 
in so doing has not induced an artificial state in the 
mind of the subject. ' Hypnotic suggestion, and 
suggestion out of hypnosis, have the same aim : to 
determine the subject's will in a certain direction. 
Suggestion sets the conscious will in the right direction 
as education does.' 1 The failure is only when the 
suggestion is out of the range of the capacity and 
natural drift of the subject's consciousness. 

An unwise and unfortunate use of revivals is that 
they take certain social standards and attempt to force 
them indiscriminately on all persons alike. The notion 
is formed, and, doubtless, rightly, that the only means 
of escape for one whose evil habits are deeply ingrained 
is through repentance, a definite regeneration and con- 
fession. There seems to be practical ignorance of the 
other type of conversion, i.e., sudden awakening follow- 
ing the sense of imperfection, and still greater disregard 
of the fact that it is not natural for certain tempera- 
ments to develop spasmodically, or even to exhibit 
marked stadia in their growth. Consequently, the 
normal means of regeneration for the wayward and for 
hardened sinners becomes a dogma, and is held up as 
the only means of escape for children, for natures 
spiritually immature, for the virtuous, and for those 
temperamentally unfit. A certain competition for 
supremacy among churches, and for success among 
individual workers, exaggerates the evil. Each new 
convert is sometimes vulgarly called by revivalists 
another star in the crowns which they will wear in the 
future life. If there were only power of discrimination, 
they would see that their success in dragging many 
so-called converts into the whirl of excitement, hypnot- 
ising them, and leaving them empty afterward, is more 

1 Moll, op. cit., p. 364. 

13 



174 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

fitly likened to the triumph of a man of prowess who 
wears scalps of victims as trophies. It is a significant 
fact that of the whole number of respondents who 
expressed an opinion, only two or three of those 
who had been through revival experiences spoke in 
unqualified terms of approval of the methods usually 
employed. There were a few of the number who 
condemned them severely. There was a general 
depreciation of the emotional pressure exerted; and 
this, coming from the converts themselves, should be 
of value. 

A study of early conversions bears a similar testi- 
mony. If we take arbitrarily the ages of 12 for females 
and 14 for males, and study the forces operating in all 
the conversions before those ages, we find that there are 
almost none on whom marked emotional pressure was 
not exerted, or who were not influenced by strong 
suggestion and imitation. These are typical: F., 11. 
' I had deeply religious parents ; I was always in some 
sense a Christian. A sermon by my father in childhood 
thoroughly frightened me, and its effects never left me. 
I was tormented by fears of being lost/ F., 11. 
4 A deep impression was made on me by a story of 
a woman who died, saying, "A million dollars for 
a moment of time ! " I was overcome by fear of 
sudden death/ F., II. 'My early life was as careless 
and happy as a bird's. The first time that religion 

seemed meant for me was at a revival, when Mr M 

preached on the crucifixion. He drew a vivid picture 
of it, and told the congregation they had nailed Him to 
the cross. My childish heart was broken ; I felt I could 
do nothing to atone for making Christ suffer/ M., 11. 
' It was mostly due to the influence of my seat-mate ; 
when he went to the altar, I thought, " Why, if he can 
be a Christian, I can, too/' ' It should be remembered 
that these are among the number in which the experi- 
ence was regarded by the respondent as a real con- 
version. The event may be genuine, regardless of the 
emotionalism or imitation involved. In fact, it may be 



THE ABNORMAL ASPECT OF CONVERSION 175 

largely due to it. The harmful results may be occa- 
sionally the inevitable waste that comes with work, the 
necessary sacrifice which goes along with activity in 
a social complex. Nevertheless, the picture is complete 
only if we keep in mind the large number who are 
wrecked through ignorance and indiscretion. The force 
of public opinion and the contagion which binds 
individuals into unity of action is one of the most 
formidable agencies all the way along, from its force 
among gregarious animals to that in the most evolved 
society. The stimulus of the ensemble renders the 
defenders of the herd among animals fearless of per- 
sonal danger ; it incites men to deeds of valour in 
battle ; it arouses people in political crises from indiffer- 
ence into vigorous action ; but when this same irresist- 
ible force is focused on a young, tender soul that is 
just beginning to feel its way into clear light, that 
should still remain in childish innocence, it is a per- 
version of nature which would be criminal were it not 
covered by ignorance. 

The dangers of revivals cannot be more forcibly or 
more truly expressed than in the words of President 
David Starr Jordan, taken from a lecture delivered 
before the Psychic Society of Oakland: — 

1 The lesson to us is that one should be temperate in 
all things ; that religion shows itself in lofty ideals 
steadily followed, in a clean life, and in a pure heart. 
Sterile emotions are not religion, and hysteria, of the 
same nature as drunkenness, may be even more danger- 
ous, because it is insidious, and because it may seem to 
come under the protection of the honoured church. 

' It is no attack on religion to protest against the 
abuses which may creep into religious practice. Every 
honest clergyman knows that these excesses exist, and 
in the degree that he is earnest he deplores them, 
though he may not see how to avoid them. This is the 
problem of his life work, to be helpful only, and not to 
hurt even the least of the little ones. He cannot, as has 
been said, "go clanging in stoga-boots through the holy 



176 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

of holies." He cannot delegate his duty to itinerant 
pretenders, ignorant of right and careless of results. 

1 I have here the card of a professional evangelist 
and comic elocutionist. His week's religious work, in 
Santa Rosa, is followed by an evening of side-splitting 
elocution, and the appended press notices testify to his 
excellence in both roles. On the back of the card 
"Dignan's Corn Cure" is advertised. This is the work 
of the cross-roads fakir, not of the man of God. It is 
a gentle misuse of language to call such a man a quack. 
He is a criminal. 

' It is not an attack on religion to call crime or folly 
by its name. The menace to the church comes from 
the use of its honoured name as a cloak for folly and 
selfishness. Because revivals of religion have been 
productive of endless good under wise hands, is no 
reason why revivals of hysteria, of sensationalism and 
sensualism should not receive the rebuke they 
merit. . . . 

' It is certain that chronic religious excitement is 
destructive to the higher life. The great efforts put 
forth to save the sinner should not be used as a means 
of dissipation for those who believe themselves to be 
saints. . . . 

' There is no right way for the development of all 
men. Each one must live his own life, pass through his 
own changes. He can be helped by others, but this 
help must be given to him wisely; and in this connec- 
tion the work of the preacher has an importance few of 
us realise. He is to deal with the most delicate part of 
the nature of man — the part that is most easily injured 
by bunglers, which can be most helped by the influence 
of true piety. To teach young men and women the 
way of life, we need the noblest, wisest and purest men 
in the calling of the ministry. In the hands of the 
minister is the moulding of souls — for the long, sweet, 
helpful life that now is, and, as we hope, for the life that 
is to come/ 

Our discussion must not end with the impression 



THE ABNORMAL ASPECT OF CONVERSION 177 

that revivals and evangelists are entirely responsible 
for the emotional excesses. We have seen that they only 
work on those peculiarities of temperament which belong 
to human nature, and which would probably assert 
themselves in some form without external interference. 
The evidence has already been sufficient that tempera- 
ment is at the bottom of the deep depression and 
glowing experiences which attend conversion. Some of 
the most marked pathological tendencies are shown in 
persons who are let alone. Indeed, the fact of being 
left without any external stimulus seems often to be the 
very condition which aggravates the feelings until they 
become abnormal. This is beautifully illustrated in 
the following instance of a woman who passed through 
an intense storm and stress experience. Her conviction 
phenomena cannot be understood without taking into 
account her disposition and early surroundings. She 
relates that her mother was disappointed during preg 
nancy and at her birth in having a child, and showed 
her no tenderness. Through the unkindness of her 
parents, she learned to keep her feelings to herself. She 
describes herself as having been a naughty child, 
nervous, irritable, jealous, protesting, and a spit-fire, 
but with it all she had a keen sense of justice and of 
truthfulness. By 10 she had a morbid conscience, which 
soon took a religious turn. ' Books and teaching/ she 
says, ' led me to expect conversion. Teachings bewildered 
my mind ; I worried over doctrines, and had misgivings 
about being one of the non-elect. At meeting I rose 
for prayers. I did not know how to be converted ; 1 
asked mother, and she did not understand me. I went 
away to school. Another girl and I were still troubled 
about our salvation. I found my first real comfort in 
finding in a book that God, and not self, was the proper 
object of contemplation. This was my first real insight 
and the first rush of feeling toward God. I joined 
the church, and was very active in religious work and in 
my anxiety for others, and lived in an odour of sanctity. 
I became much in love with the ideal of perfect 



178 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

surrender and perfection, and read perfectionist books. 
I would lie in bed and think just of God, God, God, 
with much sense of being shut in by divinity/ The 
record so far, and throughout, bears evidence that the 
person belongs to the type of character designated by 
Professor Coe as the spontaneous or original. In fact, 
she says, ' In spite of great effort, I was little affected 
by ceremonial. Baptism, Communion, and the like left 
me cold. My good moments were formless.' She was 
pushed by older people into questionable extremes of 
piety, which were spasmodic. But doubts soon set in, 
and she became terrified at the idea of giving up her 
faith ; and through fear of losing it, she cried, prayed, 
lost sleep and appetite, and suffered from blues and 
depression. ' Calamity suddenly fell. It shook my faith 
in God and man. Searching misery came in successive 
waves. Benevolent purpose in the world seemed gone. 
For years I didn't know a moment free from mental 
misery. I was in extreme depth of disbelief. Night 
after night I went out into the dark, crying out to the 
life that dwelt in the universe to help me. I felt abso- 
lutely aloof from everything, a broken thing. I said 
to myself, as to something above me, I will never 
believe one inch beyond what my coldest thinking tells 
me is most probable. On thinking how the world- 
consciousness might be even blinder and less organised 
than our own, I gave up the search after God. I no 
longer cared even to die.' This case bears clear 
evidence of organic and temperamental conditions under- 
lying its varied experiences. The point to be noticed 
in this connection is how the' experiences become 
automatically cumulative > so that no matter in what 
direction the development starts, it carries itself on to 
the limit of expression. Beginning with a nervous, 
irritable nature, a tendency to seclusion of feeling, and 
a morbid conscience, we have, in one direction, a 
searching for a way of escape — each idea starts a fresh 
wave of experience, and each experience, in turn, leads 
on to a fresh striving ; or, when the tide sets in the 



THE ABNORMAL ASPECT OF CONVERSION 179 

opposite direction, a corresponding series of steps leads 
from bad to worse — doubt deepens the despair, and 
despair, in turn, increases the doubt. She progressively 
walks, talks, and cries herself down to the point of death. 
It is important to note that doubt preceded the conscious- 
ness of it, and she was alarmed at its coming. The 
cumulative effect of the experiences is perhaps due to 
the interplay between the organic states and ideas. A 
physiological condition awakens the consciousness of its 
presence, and the idea induces a deepening of the 
somatic resonance. The respondent herself describes 
the misery as ' coming in successive waves.' Sensation 
and idea constantly interact, and each augments the 
other, until some external event breaks the chain, or 
until the limit of endurance is reached. One sees the 
same tendency in a small way in the frightened horse, 
which becomes more frightened as it runs ; or in the 
hurt child, who cries because he is hurt, and then cries 
worse because he has cried. We have here, then, 
another great highway along which religious experiences 
sweep themselves beyond the limits of the normal and 
become pathological ; a certain initiative of religious 
ecstasy, or of guilt, combined with an element of originality 
in temperament, tends to become automatically cumulative, 
until the emotional state chases everything but itself out of 
the field of consciousness. 



PART II 

LINES OF RELIGIOUS GROWTH NOT 
INVOLVING CONVERSION 



CHAPTER XIV 

SOURCES OF DATA 

THERE are some Christian churches which have never 
taught the doctrine of conversion, but which look upon 
the attainment of spiritual life simply as a process of 
even and continuous development. It is for the pur- 
pose of gaining an insight into the nature of religious 
growth of the gradual and relatively uneventful kind 
that the present study sets out. We shall have to 
inquire, What are the lines along which individuals 
seem to develop? If there are no sharp points of 
transition, what are the essential characteristics of 
each period in the individual's religious life history? 
What, in bold outlines, are the differences between the 
faith of childhood and that of maturity, and what are 
the steps which mark the progress? What are the 
forces, both subjective and external, which determine 
the trend of development? The present study is conse- 
quently in part a supplement to the preceding, so that 
we shall have occasion incidentally to stop and inquire 
into the likeness and difference between the tw r o types 
of experiences. It is primarily, however, an objective 
inquiry into the laws of growth shown by a comparative 
study of the religious lives of groups of persons. 

The progress of this gradual-growth type is usually 
just as definite as that of the cases we have been 
studying. The persons are generally as capable of self- 
analysis, but there are no sudden crises which mark 
the disappearance of an old life and the beginning of a 
new. 

183 



1 84 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

It was occasionally found difficult to separate the cases 
into the two groups. It sometimes occurs that definite 
religious awakening is not called a conversion by persons 
who are not accustomed to that specific terminology. 
On the other hand, a religious experience was in a few 
instances called a conversion when it was specifically said 
by the respondent that the experience had no especial 
significance. Whenever the awakening was definite 
enough, in the opinion of the respondent, to mark a 
complete change in life, it was classed as a conversion, 
and those in which the conversion phenomenon was pro- 
fessedly only a mere incident in growth were included 
among the gradual -growth cases. Usually, however, 
the judgment of the respondent was followed implicitly 
as to whether he or she belonged to the first or second 
group. 

The raw material for the research was wholly from 
autobiographies ; those in books were usually dis- 
appointing, being too external and descriptive, and 
too barren in any record of inner experience. The 
published records which were finally judged as com- 
plete enough on the religious side to be included in 
the study were the following: Harriet Martineau, Mary 
Livermore, Frances Power Cobbe, George Eliot, Tolstoi, 
Carlyle, Ruskin, Frederick Robertson, Charles Kingsley 
and Goethe. 

The greatest number of records were written directly 
in reply to printed lists of questions sent out at three 
different times. The wording of the question lists 
varied slightly, though the substance was practically 
identical. The majority were in response to this 
syllabus : — 

' I. What religious customs did you observe in child- 
hood, and with what likes and dislikes ? What w r ere 
the chief temptations of your youth ? How were they 
felt, and how did you strive to resist ? What errors and 
struggles have you had with {a) lying and other dis- 
honesty, (J?) wrong appetites for foods and drinks, (c) 
vita sexualis ? what relation have you noticed between 



SOURCES OF DATA 185 

this and moral and religious experiences ? (d) laziness, 
jealousy, etc. 

■II. Influences, good and bad, which have been 
especially strong in shaping your life — parental training, 
books, friends, church, music, art, natural phenomena, 
deaths, personal struggles, misfortunes, etc. ? 

'III. If you have passed through a series of beliefs 
and attitudes, mark out the stages of growth and what 
you feel now to be the trend of your life. 

' IV. Were there periods at which growth seemed 
more rapid; times of especially deepened experience; 
any sudden awakening to larger truth, new energy, hope 
and love ? At what age were they ? How did they 
come — some crisis, a death, meditation, some unaccount- 
able way, etc. ? 

' V. Have you had a period of doubt or of reaction 
against traditional customs and popular beliefs ? When 
and how did it begin and end, if at all? Have you 
noticed any relapses or especially heightened experi- 
ences ? How did they come, and with what were they 
connected ? 

'VI. What motives have been most prominent at 
different times — fears, remorse, wish for approval of 
others, sense of duty, love of virtue, divine impulse, 
desire to grow, etc.? In what ways do your feelings 
respond religiously to God, nature, institutions, people, 
etc.? 

'VII. State a few truths embodying your deepest 
feelings. What would you now be and do if you realised 
your ideals of the higher life ? 

'VIII. Age, sex, temperament, church (if any), and 
nationality.' 

The number of cases represented in the study 
is two hundred and thirty-seven (237) ; females, 
one hundred and forty-two (142), males, ninety-five 

(95)- 

The respondents were mostly native-born Americans, 
pretty generally distributed among the States. Of other 
nationalities there were English, 14; German, 4; Scotch, 



186 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

3 ; Irish, 2 ; Swiss, 2 ; Jewish, 2 ; Russian, 1 ; Cana- 
dian, 1. 

In regard to church connection, the records are fairly 
representative, and no one church far exceeds in numbers. 
It is not always stated. Those reporting it are more 
than a score each of Methodists, Friends, Presbyterians, 
Episcopalians; about one-half as many of Congrega- 
tionalists, German Reformed, Baptists and Unitarians ; 
a smaller number of the Lutheran, Catholic, Universalist, 
Jewish, Moravian, Spiritualist and Greek churches ; 
and thirteen who had no church connection. That is 
to say, the present study, just as the preceding, is a re- 
search into the religious consciousness of persons who 
are, for the most part, modern Americans and adherents 
of the Christian religion ; so that whatever generalisa- 
tions are made in regard to the growth of individual 
religious experience must be understood to apply especi- 
ally to this class of persons. A study of the non- 
American, non-Christian records did not show them to 
be different enough in character to justify the separate 
presentation of them. 

Too large a portion of the respondents are college- 
bred persons for the groups to be entirely representative ; 
although in that and in all other respects the class is 
reasonably satisfactory. All the replies to the question 
list were used, except one, which was too vague and 
imaginative to be understood, and a few others which 
were too fragmentary. Without exception they have 
the stamp of perfect sincerity, and generally of the 
utmost frankness. Complete reliance was placed upon 
the statements as given by the subjects, so that the 
facts are their own but for possible distortions from 
condensation. 

The ages are, fortunately, well distributed, with 
the exception of the girls between 16 and 19. 
These outnumber the rest, which is due, in part, to the 
large number of returns from the New Jersey State 
Normal School. The classification, according to ages, 
js shown on Table XVII. The determination of age 



SOURCES OF DATA 



187 



groups is somewhat arbitrary, but not wholly so, as will 
appear. Those above 40 are scattered along to the 
85 th year. 





Number 


of Cases. 


Ages. 






Females. 


Males. 


16-19 


47 


O 


20-23 (males, 20-24) . 


26 


24 


24-29 (males, 25-29) . 


23 


24 


30-40 ..... 


22 


25 


40 or over .... 


24 


22 



Table XVII. — Showing distribution of cases used, according to age. 

It should be said in regard to the younger females 
that their experiences were given, in general, as fully and 
as well as the others, as the result of their constant 
training in self-analysis. Wherever it would avoid dis- 
tortion of results, the different age-groups are considered 
separately. 



CHAPTER XV 

THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD 

We shall have to depend for our picture of the religion 
of childhood upon the reminiscences of the respondents 
to Question I. of the syllabus. It is uncertain to what 
extent the statements are valid, vitiated as they must 
be by defects in memory, and by the colouring that 
childhood must receive when interpreted in terms of 
mature life. 

On a priori grounds one would suppose that the 
roots of religion are very complex, and run back into 
the very earliest years of childhood. It is doubtful if 
we have any accurate scientific knowledge of its very 
beginnings ; perhaps the nearest approach to it will 
be gained through careful observation by parents and 
teachers of the acts and sayings of children who are 
unconscious of being observed. In the absence of any 
knowledge whatsoever of a scientific nature in regard to 
the religion of childhood, any facts which seem to carry 
with them a considerable degree of probability may be 
of value. 

In interpreting the childhood religion of the cases 
before us, it is important to bear in mind that they are 
of a special class. There is great uniformity in regard 
to the character of the earlier training in some of its 
outward aspects ; nearly all report careful teaching 
and the usual habits of attending church and Sunday 
school, or family prayer, the evening prayer, and such 
other observances as are of distinctly Christian custom. 
There are eight females and five males who have h^d 



THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD 189 

no special religious training, and twelve females and two 
males reared under more or less unfavourable conditions 
religiously. 

The most marked feature of childhood religion 
shown is that of credulity. Children, for the most part, 
accept in an unquestioning way the ideas taught in 
church, Sunday school and home, and unconsciously 
conform to them. One woman writes : ' The same thing 
happened every day as far back as I can remember ; that 
is, I would go to church and catechism on Sunday, and 
say my prayers night and morning before retiring and 
on arising. Everything was done in a mechanical way, 
though, until I was about seventeen or eighteen, then 
it dawned upon me that I had a conscience. I saw 
that I was obeying the word of the law instead of the 
spirit/ The following quotations will help to com- 
plete the picture : F. ' I had always been taught that 
there was a God, and took it as a matter of course, 
never doubting my parents' word/ F. ' I said my 
prayers faithfully, but had no real religious experience 
until 13/ M. 'I went through religious exercises as a 
matter of course, and with entire faith/ M. ' I simply 
accepted for truth what my parents and pastor said/ 
M. ' I tried to experience everything I saw, but gener- 
ally, I think, with poor success/ 

In this class of instances the element of imitation 
is more noticeable among girls, and that of obedience 
among boys. Women repeatedly mention the extent 
to which they have been influenced in their training by 
the example of those about them or by the unselfishness 
of parents or teachers. Men, on the contrary, frequently 
mention the fact of religious observance, simply because 
it was required by parents, or because it had never 
occurred to them to question the rightness of the 
customs of those about them. 

It would be a mistake, however, to suppose that 
credulity and conformity were universally present in 
childhood ; incredulity and distrust frequently begin to 
show themselves in very early years. M. ' As a child I 



i 9 o THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

had no faith before I was 9 ; I never received any 
religious instruction without questioning it. My teach- 
ing was very orthodox; I questioned everything to 
myself; I don't remember that I ever thought of speak- 
ing of it to anyone/ F. ' I had a secret distrust of God 
who permitted the sufferings of Christ.' F. 'My father 
died when I was 6. I prayed that he might come back ; 
my prayer was not answered, and it shook my faith in 
prayer.' The cases would easily form a series from 
extreme credulity to distrust and doubt, with far the 
larger number of instances falling on the side of 
credulity. 

A similar phenomenon to credulity is described in 
such phrases as the following : F. ' I do not remember 
the time when I wasn't vitally concerned in religion.' 
F. ' I think religion began with my birth.' M. c I always 
felt myself a child of God.' These differ from 
credulity in that the fact of religion or of religious 
teaching never seemed to rise to the surface. We shall 
call this type of experience unconscious observance. It is 
the case in which religion is the atmosphere in which 
the child lives, and which it breathes in the same 
unconscious way as it breathes the air. 

The second most pronounced feature is the close 
rapport of the child with a supernatural world. This 
shows itself variously ; the most marked aspect of it is 
the intimate relationship of the child with an external 
being which naturally it names ' God ' or ' Christ.' God 
is almost invariably of human form, usually living above 
the child in the clouds or sky, or hovering near it. God 
is almost never regarded as a spirit, but is a concrete 
existence external to the child. As a consequence, the 
relationship of the child with God or Christ is not one 
of fear or awe so much as one of intimacy. F. l I asked 
God to do things on condition that I would do a certain 
part.' M. ' I always asked God for the most trivial 
things.' F. ' I felt that God was on my side.' F. ' I 
told God many things I would not tell my parents.' F. 
' I used to use the most endearing terms to God, think- 



THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD 191 

ing He would be more likely to listen.' M. i I loved 
Jesus with all the fervour of a child's heart.' F. ' I had 
implicit confidence in God's love for me.' F. ' I always 
asked God to do things for me, and promised Him 
things if He would answer my prayer.' As these quota- 
tions suggest, the relationship is that of love and trust. 
The child uses God for its own petty ends, it bargains 
with Him. God and heaven more frequently exist for 
the child and not the child for them. 

Fears are common, though they occur less frequently 
than love and trust. F. ' I knew God to be loving and 
kind, but He filled me with awe and terror; there 
seemed to be a great gulf between us.' F. ' God was 
an awful, merciless being.' F. 'The sense that God 
was watching over me frightened me in the night. I 
prayed and repeated, " I am Jesus' little lamb," and felt 
secure.' M. ( Asa child I had a terrible fear of hell.' 
The fears shade off into awe and reverence, but this feel- 
ing, as will be seen from the following table, is almost 
never present. 

The sense of right and wrong germinates early, and is 
evidently one of the most potent factors in childhood 
religion. F. ' I remember a sense of duty influencing 
my childhood before I was 4 years old.' F. 'When 
I would lie I would be struck with fear and hatred of 
myself, and prayed not to do it again.' M. ' I could not 
sleep until I had said my evening prayer.' M. 'As a 
child I tried to do right always.' F. ' I had no religious 
training, but prayed a good deal to be made good.' 
F. 'When 7 I stole some cookies. I worried over it 
for three days. I confessed to God, wept and prayed, 
but felt that something more was necessary. Finally I 
confessed to mother, and was forgiven.' 

The relative significance of the groups of facts given 
above may be seen in Table XVIII. 

It will be seen that credulity and conformity occurred 
in at least about one-half of the cases, and intimate re- 
lationship with God in about one-third of them. These 
are points of value to the teacher and parent. It is the 



192 



THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 



Per Cent, of Cases 
for each Item. 




j Credulity, Conformity, etc 

\ Religiously Inclined from Childhood . 

Incredulity 

r Bargaining with God 

God as Talisman ...... 

God and Heaven near at Hand .... 

Love and Trust in God ..... 

Sum of four preceding — Intimate Relationship with 
God 

Awe and Reverence 

Fears — of Future, of God, etc 

Dislikes for Religious Observances 

Pleasure in Religious Observances . 

Keen Sense of Right and Wrong .... 



Table XVIII. — Showing the relative pronmience of some features of child- 
hood religion, 

time, apparently, when nature means that children shall 
be receptive of the influences in their surroundings. 
The long duration of childhood has been pointed out 
as one of the conditions of advancing civilisation. It is 
the time in which the child can drink in the best of its 
social environment. 1 It is significant in this connection 
that incredulity is relatively absent. 

It is a fact also of pedagogical value that fear is less 
prominent than love. If the persons we are studying 
are representative, the prominence of fear in childhood 
has doubtless been often over-emphasised. 2 Awe and 
reverence, which are doubtless the irradiation of fear, and 
which are often regarded as among the highest religious 
feelings, are also conspicuously absent. 3 They appear 
to develop later, as was probably true in racial history. 

1 Compare John Fiske, The Destiny of Man, chap. vi. 

2 See, for example, G. Stanley Hall, *A Study of Fears,' American 
Journal of Psychology, Vol. VIII. , p. 147 et sea. 

3 Compare James Martineau, Tytcs of Ethical Theory, Vol. II. , p. 206. 



THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD 193 

The budding of conscience so early is an important 
point. It may be one of the principal lines along which 
the religious consciousness is to unfold. It has been 
customary to regard the development of the moral life 
as coming relatively late. Felix Adler, for example, 
says 'the moral life does not assume its distinctive 
character until after several years of human existence 
have elapsed/ 1 

It was a surprise to find credulity so much more 
common among the boys than among the girls, by a 
ratio of 59 to 31. A little light is thrown on it by a 
comparison of this item with the others in the table. 
For example, the girls express a pleasure in religious 
observances more frequently than the boys by a ratio of 
17 to 7 ; while, on the contrary, boys express a distinct 
dislike for them more often than the girls by a ratio of 
21 to 9. Again, an intimate relationship with God or 
Christ is much more distinctively true of the girls, and 
they likewise have a keener sense of right and wrong. 
The boys, on the other hand, look on religion as ob- 
jective and external more than two and a half times as 
often. These considerations would seem to indicate 
that girls are more imaginative, more actively responsive 
to their surroundings, perhaps are more precocious, than 
the boys, and that religion has for them a more vital sig-" 
nificance. This falls in line with the differences we have 
already noticed between the sexes, namely, that girls are 
more impressionable, they drink in their environment 
at an earlier age, and work it over into something of 
personal significance. The tone of the replies shows 
this difference more clearly than do statistics. The 
descriptions of the childhood religion of the women 
picture it as more sincere, earnest and vital. A few 
quotations will make the difference clear. ' From my 
earliest childhood I have had an appreciation of what a 
religious life should be. I said my prayers faithfully, 
and felt if I neglected them that I could not sleep.' ■ I 
cannot remember when, in my childish way, I did not 
1 Felix Adler, Moral Instruction of Children, 1898, p. 47. 



i 9 4 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION , 

love and fear God.' ( I have always been a Christian, I 
think, reared as I was by Christian parents, and brought 
up in the atmosphere of the church which I loved.' 
1 My parents' instruction took root early. I was a re- 
ligious child ; religious ideas were from the first interest- 
ing and attractive to me. I was spontaneously grateful 
to God, and really loved him.' Such statements as 
these are, of course, not absent from the records of the 
males, but they are much less frequent. They occur 
more than twice as often among the females. It should 
be borne in mind that they are relatively rare among 
both sexes. 

In fact, one of the most pronounced characteristics 
of the religion of childhood, as has been hinted in the 
quotations heretofore, is that religion is distinctively ex- 
ternal to the child rather than something which possesses 
inner significance. This we have seen reflected in the 
credulity and obedience, and in the external and con- 
crete character of God and Christ. These are typical 
illustrations : F. ' Religion consisted chiefly in outer 
observance. I accepted the doctrines taught me, but 
was not really interested in them, although I had a 
distinct idea of right and wrong/ F. ' Up to 14 I 
believed that a real live person, God, hovered over me 
constantly, and was conscious of my every act/ M. c I 
was counselled to love and fear God, and to obey every 
word of His Holy Scriptures. This God was part of 
my childhood, always present, though never near. He 
never entered into my life, but remained outside, and 
kept an eye on it/ 

We shall have occasion in a later chapter to see in 
what way religion becomes gradually transformed from 
its distinctive character as external observance to a life 
that is lived from within. 



CHAPTER XVI 

ADOLESCENCE— SPONTANEOUS RELIGIOUS 
AWAKENINGS 

The period of adolescence is somewhat naturally marked 
off by the facts at hand as extending from 10 or n 
years to the age of 24 or 25. This agrees only fairly 
well with the common use of the term. It is the custom 
to regard puberty as the index of the beginning of 
adolescence. This is the result of interpreting adoles- 
cence in physiological terms ; but if it is viewed from a 
psychological standpoint, we shall find that its earlier 
limit is pushed back by two or three years. In so far 
as there are any definite events which mark the end of 
the adolescent period, they agree pretty well in placing 
it at about 25. Clouston, for example, who makes the 
period coincide with that of the development of the 
functions of reproduction, and accordingly to end with 
the full perfection of these functions, places the limit 
at 25. 1 Foster's Medical Dictionary puts the end of 
adolescence at 25 for boys and 21 for girls. There is 
considerable individual, sex and race variation in regard 
to both the initial and later limit, which for our purpose 
does not need to be taken into account. 

Adolescence is, in some respects, the most interesting 
period from the standpoint of religious development, as 
from every other point of view. It is the great formative 
period. Youth has stored up vast under-currents of 
will and emotion, and cross-currents which oppose and 

1 Clouston, Mental Diseases •, Lecture 16 ; also Neuroses of Develop- 
ment, p. 12. 

195 



196 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

conspire to bring about the most varied and contra- 
dictory phenomena. For this reason it is also one of 
the most difficult periods to study. The whole religious 
history of adolescence, as it pictures itself in the cases 
before us, is too large and complex to grasp except in 
fragments. Now one stream of tendency, and now 
another, arises in bold relief and reveals the forces at 
work in human life. Certain aspects of adolescence will 
consequently be taken up in turn, and will be seen later 
falling into harmony. 



I. The Period of Clarification. 

Late in childhood, at the beginning of adolescence, 
there is a more or less definite clearing of the religious 
atmosphere ; it appears to be the rule with girls, and 
is frequent among the boys. As we have already seen, 
the ideas of God and duty and religious observance 
have been external to the child during the earlier 
years, but now they take root in his life and have a vital 
significance. Heretofore they have been embodied in 
precept or custom or his own playful imagination. Now 
they have begun to be his own. Often the growth from 
within has been unconscious, and the freshly organised 
little world presents itself to the child as something large 
and new, and with an emotional accompaniment. 

The awakening is manifested variously. In putting 
the instances together, they fell naturally into three groups 
— a fresh insight involving a distinct rational element ; 
a first-hand perception of right and wrong ; and an 
emotional response. These instances illustrate : — 

Insight. — F. * One morning, when a child coming 
home from church, as I was walking in at the gate, the 
thought came to me, " There is a God." I had always 
been taught it, but never realised it until just at that 
time/ F. 'When n I awoke to the realisation of deeper 
truths/ M. 'At puberty I became more serious and 
rationally conscious.' M. 'When 15 I began to realise 



ADOLESCENCE— SPONTANEOUS AWAKENINGS 197 

for myself the importance of prayer, and to feel that 
God was a Spirit/ 

Moral. — F. ' When 9 the seeds which had been sown 
began to grow. I did wish earnestly to be good. I 
would go into lonely places to pray/ F. ' When 10 I 
became especially good at home and at school. I do 
not know what made me think so, but I thought God 
loved me better. It influenced me for good for a long 
time after that.' M. ' My inward development began at 
this time (14), marked by a general clearing up of moral 
ideas/ M. ' I told a lie when 14 (I had done evil 
things before, certainly). The lie revealed to me my 
conscience/ 

Emotional. — F. ' When 1 1 I had a sudden and violent 
awakening — a continuous state of religious fervour. I 
had had a dangerous illness/ F. 'When 10 I had a 
sense of being saved. My religious nature was awakened 
and I felt for myself the need of religion/ M. ' While 
sitting alone at home one Sunday, thinking of religious 
duties, I heard a distinct voice within me, "My Son, 
give me thy heart." ' F. ' On one occasion (10 years of 
age), while singing the hymn ending " Repentant to the 
skies/' etc., I remember lifting up my arms and feeling 
as if a Divine Presence were in the room ; so strong was 
the feeling that I drew back my arms and said to 
myself, " Why, that must have been God." I was in 
my room alone at the time/ 

Grouping these and similar instances, we have Table 
XIX. The gross result is that there is a pretty definite 
period of clarification with at least half of the girls and 
a third of the boys. (Complete records would doubt- 
less have made the percentages higher). It is thus seen 
to be a very common phenomenon for the innocence of 
childhood to give place suddenly to religious intuitions 
which arise unexpectedly. The age when such clarifica- 
tions occur, as will be seen from the table, is on the 
average about 11 for girls and 13 for boys. The exact 
age was not always given. This, with the fewness of 
the cases among males makes the average ages put in 



198 



THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 





Females. 


Males. 


Clarification showing 






Itself as — 










Per Cent. 


Average 


Per Cent. 


Average 




of Cases 


Age. 


of Cases. 


Age. 


Insight • • • 


10 


12.9 


7 


(12) 


Moral .... 


17 


I0.6 


11 


14. 1 


Emotional 


21 


10.6 


5 


(12.2) 


Unclassified 


3 


(9-1) 


9 


13-7 


Sum of above . 


5i 


10.9 


32 


13.2 



Table XIX. — Showing some facts in regard to religious clarification 
at the beginning of adolescence* 

parentheses in the table too uncertain to build on. Taken 
as a whole, it is safe to say that there is a difference of 
about 2\ years between the sexes, which coincides with 
the difference which is usually supposed to exist in the 
maturity of the sexes at this period. The number of 
cases of boys were scattered, but the ages fall principally 
between 11 and 15 ; those of the girls range from 8 to 
16, but mostly from 10 to 12 inclusive. The cases of 
girls in which the exact age was given form this series: — 



Number of Cases 
Age . 



7 13 10 10 2 4 3 1 
9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 



The year of greatest frequency is 10, which is likewise 
the time of sudden increment in the number of cases 
of conversion. It is instructive to compare these ages 
with those of conversion as shown in Part I. The rapid 
increase in the number of these sudden beginnings is at 
10, while in conversion it was at 11. 

It is significant that girls first awaken most frequently 
on the emotional side and least often to new insight 
into truth. The boys, on the contrary, have the 
emotional awakening least frequently, but organise 
their spiritual world most often as a moral one. 

In these first beginnings of religion, we have doubt- 
less a glimpse into the most vital and primal elements 



ADOLESCENCE— SPONTANEOUS AWAKENINGS 199 

in it. It is as if suddenly the curtain were lifted 
and one had a glimpse into those forces which have 
been lying dormant during the earlier years of child- 
hood. The emotional outburst may be interpreted as a 
sudden realisation in consciousness of the latent life — 
forces which express themselves in terms indefinable to 
clear consciousness. The sudden intellectual perception 
into the significance of religion seems to signify the 
expression of this energy with an intellectual con- 
comitant. In the sudden budding of conscience and 
the perception of the moral worth of things, we are 
tracing one step further the ethical root of religion, 
which we saw already showing itself in childhood. 

2. Spontaneous Awakenings. 

The phenomena we have just noticed are not to be 
distinguished in character from those which come all 
through adolescence. They are distinguishable from 
these we are now to consider only by being the first 
awakenings to a vital experience of religious truth, 
generally after a credulous and thoughtless childhood. 
Similar experiences are liable to occur at any time 
during adolescence ; even after joining church or being 
confirmed, or engaging in active religious work, there is 
often a deepening of feeling, a fresh outburst of life, a 
sudden revival of interest. 

The nature of these experiences will be made clear 
by a few typical instances: F. i Father died when I 
was 15. He was not a church member. I determined 
I would stand or fall with him. I was hostile to 
religion, and looked on it stoically. I came to the 
conviction when 17 that I was living far below my 
ideals. The pressure became too great. A spon- 
taneous emotional awakening came which lasted three 
months. At the end of that time I joined church. 
The pressure from without and the desire to please 
mother do not seem sufficient to explain it/ M. 
% While walking along a woodland pasture one Sabbath 



20o THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

morning (24 years) I experienced an unusual realisa- 
tion of the goodness and love of God. It was the 
richest moment of blessing that ever came to me.' F. 
* I grew up into the simple, strong, pure faith of my 
parents. When 151 began to think more of God as a 
personal element in my life, turning to Him for comfort.' 
M. 'When attending holy communion at 16, I was 
filled with a wonderful feeling and lifted up to a sense 
of my duty. It was a spontaneous awakening within 
me.' 

We have in these instances experiences with which 
we are already more or less familiar from the study of 
conversion. The phenomena here suggested are very 
closely related, in the purest instances, to conversions of 
the milder type. Let us inquire what relation they bear 
to conversions. The distinction is in part purely one of 
terminology. Had a few of the deepened experiences 
we are now studying happened to those accustomed to 
describe them in evangelical phraseology, they would 
doubtless have been called conversions. There seems 
to be no dividing line between the most decisive trans- 
formations from sin to righteousness which all would 
acknowledge to be conversions, and the milder forms we 
are now considering, and which clearly fall outside of 
that distinction. They form a continuous series. The 
distinction at the extremes of the series is clear. Spon- 
taneous awakenings represent some phase of the larger 
experience embodied in conversion ; though they lack 
the all-aroundness of the latter. The conviction pheno- 
menon, the feelings which follow the awakening, the 
sense of a definite change in life, or some equally impor- 
tant aspect of conversion, is usually wanting in individual 
instances. The following case will illustrate : M. 'I 
had been on the rocks all day, shut off by the tide. I 
took little thought of time, but all day looked out upon 
the waves which came rolling up to me and then receded. 
I was awed by the forces and manifestations before me, 
and on that day I came to wonder if it were possible for 
everything to proceed in so regular a way unless there 



ADOLESCENCE— SPONTANEOUS AWAKENINGS 201 

were a God who had designed it and who managed it 
all. All at once there came over me a sudden feeling 
of insignificance, and a sense of the immensity of the 
universe, of the existence and omnipresence of God. I 
fell upon my knees there, and my inmost being seemed 
to commune with something higher than myself. By 
this time the tide was down, and I walked back as the 
sun was setting ; life seemed new, I had been lifted up, 
the field of vision was larger, there was within me a love 
of mankind, and a determination to bear the burden of 
others.' This experience in its definiteness, its sudden- 
ness, and in the new feeling toward life which followed, 
is similar to conversion. It is more like the vision which 
comes to the poet or to the philosopher; it was not 
preceded by a sense of unworthiness, and as the awak- 
ening was not followed by a definite turning about, a 
reformation, it is such an event as might occur again, or 
often. The more striking experiences gradually shade 
off into those which are attended simply by a deepening 
of feeling and increased enthusiasm, of a more or less 
sudden character, in spiritual things. That at some 
time during adolescence there should come a fresh 
awakening of religious feeling is, provided the data 
we are studying are representative, the rule rather than 
the exception. 

From the fact that they shade off into common ex- 
periences, it is an arbitrary matter to limit the class, and 
consequently to give a statistical estimate. An attempt 
to do so, keeping only fairly distinct cases, such as are 
quoted above, and including with them ' joining the 
church/ when it was a vital step, gives the following 
result : among the females 80 per cent, and among the 
males 68 per cent, pass through such experiences ; or, 
we may say in round numbers, that they are present in 
about three-fourths of the cases. Further evidence that 
they are a common occurrence may be found in Dr 
Lancaster's study of adolescence. 1 Of 598 respondents 

1 E. G. Lancaster, ■ Psychology and Pedagogy of Adolescence,' p. 95, 
Pedagogical Seminary ', 1 897. 



202 



THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 



to his questions, 518 report new religious inclinations 
between 12 and 25. He makes the generalisation that 
* more than five out of six have had these religious 
emotions/ 

As we should expect, the age at which religious 
awakenings occur tends to mark off a definite period in 
life. The exact age was not always given ; in all there 
were 88 cases among the females and 50 among the 
males who specified the age. The distribution of these 
according to years is shown in Figure 12. 

CO 



H \6f 

U 

« 1 
O 

* ft 



















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r°~ 




















'*. 


■* 












t 


1 


































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. — »- 

1 


% 

s 
— v 

X 


1 




































1 
1 
"... 

% 

i % 

\ • % 

\ % 

\ 




























;* 














\ 


* 


\ 
1 


















1 






, 












1 














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■"•> 












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1 


1 
1 

i 


















F/ 






F 







































vears i 6 9 ^ w \a vb \ft- \s \b c| w q ao u u aa 

Figure 12. — Showing the distribution according to years of cases of 
spontaneous awakening, deepened interest, etc. 

• = Girls. - — — = Boys. 

Distance to the right indicates the age, and upward 
indicates the per cent, of the whole number which occur 
at any given year. Thus, 12.6 per cent, of the awaken- 
ings of girls were at 10 years. For both sexes they 
nearly all fall between the years 10 and 21. There are 
only a few scattered ones before or after those ages. 



ADOLESCENCE— SPONTANEOUS AWAKENINGS 203 

Another small set of statistics not included in the 
present study was collected from among the soldiers of 
the standing army. Of 32 cases of religious awakening, 
they fell, with only two or three exceptions, between 
the years 13 and 21 ; the larger number in Dr Lancaster's 
study also fell between 12 and 20. 1 

This much we may say with certainty, that spon- 
taneous awakenings are distinctly adolescent phenomena. 
Although these instances are almost wholly limited to 
adolescence, there are a few scattered ones later on. 
There is one instance as late as 55. M. ' I graduated 

from H at 45 ; for 10 years I practised medicine, then, 

without any definite plan or human purpose, I became 
an ordained clergyman. It was a new unfolding in 
which I had nothing more to do, seemingly, than does 
the bud in blossoming. I had always followed a slow 
movement onward and upward.' This occurred in a 
person who had been active mentally throughout his 
life, but whose opportunities for intellectual pursuits 
had not kept pace with his interests in that direction. 
It is conceivable that a 'new unfolding* of this sort 
might occur at any time in life, provided an ideal is 
kept fresh in advance of present possibilities, and that 
the physiological functions which underlie development 
are still active. It is hardly probable that it would occur 
later than 55, which is the average age at which the 
nervous system begins its decline in weight, and 
possibly in its capacity for undergoing definite changes. 2 

As will be seen from the curves in the figure, the 
distribution throughout the years bears a striking simi- 
larity to that of conversion. The number of cases is too 
few to produce curves of very great regularity, but by 
comparing those in the figure with the ones for con- 
version in Figure 1, one sees that there is a tendency 
here, just as in those, for each of the curves to have three 
peaks. Those in curve F (for females) are at 10 to 12, 

1 E. G. Lancaster, 'Psychology and Pedagogy of Adolescence,' p. 95, 
Pedagogical Seminary, 1897. 

2 See H. H. Donaldson, Growth of the Brain, p. 325. 



2o 4 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

at 15 and 18 respectively: in M (for males) they are at 
11 to 12, 15 and 18 to 21 respectively. The earlier peak 
for the girls is larger than the later one, while exactly 
the reverse is true for boys. The tallest peak for both 
sexes is the middle one. 

The average age of these deepened experiences and 
of conversions closely correspond. The average age of 
spontaneous awakenings from this study is 13.7 years 
for females, and 16.3 years for males ; from Dr Lan- 
caster's study of 200 autobiographies is 16 for males ; 
the average age for conversion is 14.8 for females, and 
16.4 for males. 

We have in these facts a strong suggestion of the 
connection between conversion and spontaneous awak- 
enings. The greatest evidence of their likeness or 
difference, to be sure, must be looked for in the content 
of the experiences, rather than in a statistical compari- 
son. On the surface, however, it appears that there is a 
close connection. We have noticed that both sets of 
phenomena are sharply marked off between the same 
years, that the average age of their occurrence differs by 
only a fraction of a year, and also that the peculiar dis- 
tribution through the years is very similar. It is safe to 
say that conversion is not a unique experience, but has its 
correspondences in the common events of religious growth. 

There is, however, this difference that should be 
noted, namely, that spontaneous awakenings come earlier 
than conversions. Religious awakenings begin about a 
year earlier in both sexes than do conversions, and the 
periods of greatest frequency — that is, the large middle 
peaks in both curves — likewise culminate one year earlier. 
The explanation of this difference may be found, in part, 
in the fact that the awakenings are not so deep-going 
and vital. It would appear that the religious ideal 
embodied in the dogma of conversion gets hold of a 
normal tendency in life and emphasises it ; rather than 
hastening the normal trend of religious life, it tends to 
deepen it; it establishes a standard of conduct which 
must be thorough-going and fiUl of significance to be 



ADOLESCENCE— SPONTANEOUS AWAKENINGS 205 

experienced at all, and consequently which requires 
some degree of maturity to undergo. 

Having now before us all the available data in regard 
to the age of religious awakening of both the cataclysmic 
and the milder type, we may sum up what they seem to 
show most concisely by expressing in the form of curves 
the frequency of their occurrence. This is shown in 
Figure 13. 




8 9 10 II 12 13 I* 15 16 17 18 19 £0 21 2.2 

Figure 13. — Composite curves of religious awakenings* 

The curves are not drawn directly from statistics, but 
are meant to be composites of all the curves we have 
studied. They leave out minor details, and take the 
general trend. We may call them the curves of proba- 
bility that religious awakening should occur at any 
definite year in each of the sexes. The curves show 
that religious awakenings of all kinds are mostly con- 
fined to adolescence — say, between the years 10 and 21. 
They seem to indicate that religious feeling comes as a 
tidal wave which culminates shortly after puberty, and 
that lesser waves precede and follow its crest. 

Let us sum up the conditions underlying the varia- 
tions in the curves, together with the additional evidence 
adduceable from the present study. The earlier outburst 



206 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

which gives rise to the peaks at about 12 is fuller of 
religious feeling, and more liable to come among girls. 
These awakenings come at a period when there is a 
sudden impetus in almost all aspects of mental life. The 
second rise in the curves, most frequently at 1 5^ in both 
sexes, is the more important one, and appears to have 
some relation with puberty, and to be more or less con- 
nected with the rapid development in weight which 
comes near the time of puberty. As we saw in the 
study of Conversion, the religious awakenings seem to 
supplement puberty, to follow it by a little, and perhaps 
to be somewhat definitely, although remotely, connected 
with it There is a little fresh evidence to corroborate 
the previous facts. The study of deepened experiences 
among the soldiers of the American army heretofore 
referred to indicates the same relations between the two 
events as was shown in conversion. Religious awaken- 
ing occurs most frequently at 17, while in these same 
subjects puberty came most often at 14 and 15. Aside 
from the evidence suggested by the concurrence of the 
two periods as shown in the statistics, there is consider- 
able evidence of their connection in the statement of the 
respondents in regard to their inner experiences. M. i I 
was confirmed at 15 ; contemplation of the awfulness of 
sin nearly overwhelmed me. At this same time I had 
one continual struggle with sexual passion.' M. ' At 14 
came my first interest in Christianity ; it was at this 
time that I first yielded to a secret sin against my body/ 
M. ' When deeply moved religiously at 16, evil made its 
appearance ; by prayer and faith I withstood it. 1 M. 
* (When 14) I had a terrific love affair. I conceived a 
fondness for the Stoics and bought an Epictetus, which 
I read with interest/ A pointed evidence of the relation 
is shown in the character of the two curves, that of the 
girls being more rounding and less decisive in its middle 
peak, while that of the boys rises much higher at this 
point than at any other year. This agrees with the 
character of the physiological event, which is far more 
climacteric in the case of males. For a long time it has 



ADOLESCENCE— SPONTANEOUS AWAKENINGS 207 

been customary to point out the connection between 
spiritual exaltation and the sexual instinct. 'At the 
time when Anstie wrote/ says Mr Havelock Ellis, ' the 
connection between spiritual exaltation and organic 
conditions was not so plain as it is at present, but he 
had clearly perceived the special facility with which 
the ecstatic condition passes over into sexual emotion. 
Since then the almost constant connection between 
ecstasy and sexual emotion has been fairly well re- 
cognised. The phenomena of the religious life generally 
are to a large extent based on the sexual life/ 1 

Although, as will be shown in a later chapter, this 
connection is a remote one, and the religious instinct in 
its higher development is dependent upon other con- 
ditions and has other sources, nevertheless, the various 
phenomena — accession to puberty, rapid physical de- 
velopment, transformations in mental life, and spon- 
taneous religious awakenings — are so closely interwoven 
that we may say with certainty that they have had in 
evolutionary development a direct and intimate relation. 

The third rise in the curves seems to correspond to 
a period of mental maturity, as the second rise does to 
physical maturity. The same thing was observed in 
the study of conversion. This distinction has been 
clearly recognised by students of adolescence whose 
point of view has been a distinctly physiological one. 
Dr Bierent, for example, divides puberty into three 
stages — the premonitory stage, puberty itself, and the 
succeeding stage. The last one follows the others by 
a year or so. He characterises it thus : ' He (the young 
man) is no longer astonished at his sensations ; he 
reasons about them. His ideas become more serious 
and his judgment more certain. He is in the perfect 
blossoming of intelligenceand memory/ 2 

Clouston, in like manner, distinguishes the adolescent 
period, connected directly with puberty, from the later 

1 Havelock Ellis, Man and Woman, p. 295 ; also Burnham, 'A Study 
of Adolescence,' Pedagogical Seminary, Vol. I., p. 181. 

2 Leon Bierent, La Puberte, Paris, 1896, p. 36. 



2o8 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

stage, from 1 8 years on. The latter one is more clearly 
marked by development in the higher cortical centres ; 
or, on the psychical side, by a development in the higher 
aspects of the mental life. 1 

A qualitative study of the experiences which come 
at the time of the third rise in the curves shows that 
they are more mature and have a greater degree of 
insight, in this respect being different in kind from those 
that come at the earliest period. This is more charac- 
teristic of the boys than of the girls, a fact which will 
have considerable significance in the discussions which 
follow. 

These three periods mark off three crises in adoles- 
cent development ; they are periods in which the life- 
forces tend upward toward the higher brain centres. 
At this time the latent energy which has been stored up 
during the activities of childhood, and even during racial 
life, becomes actualised and expressed in terms of the 
higher psychic life. 

This energy is expressed not only in an emotional 
and rational form, as the evidences already adduced 
would seem to show, but also in motor terms. A rather 
common aspect of adolescent religion is that the youth 
sets out to do things; it is a period of heightened 
spiritual activity. The average age of the beginning 
of heightened activity is 13.6 years for females, and 17 
years for males. F. ' I began to take an active interest 
in church when I was 10/ M. 'When 16 religious faith 
became the all-absorbing interest of my life, and I 
thought it should be for all men.' F. 'When 16 I 
became ultra-evangelical ; I was proud and impetuous 
at the same time that I cultivated self-renunciation. 
Ascetic tendencies were strong; I thought pleasures 
were a snare; I was over-humble.' F. 'I held myself 
(when 16) responsible to God for my life and the use of 
it. Under different circumstances I should have wished 
to be a sister of charity ; as it was, I thought the 
missionary the ideal person. I exalted everything 
1 Clouston, Neuroses of Development ', p. no cl seq. 



ADOLESCENCE— SPONTANEOUS AWAKENINGS 209 

religious and admired the old Puritan ideal. Before 
I united with the church I threw myself into all 
its activities, and considered secular demands of slight 
moment.' A study of the records indicates that 26 per 
cent, of the females and 20 per cent of the males, or 
about one-fourth of all the subjects studied, pass, dur- 
ing adolescence, through a period of marked religious 
activity. In Lancaster's study of 200 biographies, 58 of 
them mention times of great energy and unusual activity 
during adolescence. The fact that females have such 
periods more frequently than males might give rise to 
the inference that females are more given to religious 
activity than males, which would be in direct contra- 
diction to what we shall see later. With males the 
active element is more constant throughout youth, while 
the females, as will be seen, are more apt to fluctuate 
between activity and feeling. The distribution of these 
experiences through the years is nearly the same as that 
of the deepened experiences already noticed. This fact 
seems to indicate that the emotional awakening and the 
heightened activity which expresses itself in enthusiasm 
in church work, or in the missionary spirit, are two 
aspects of the same thing. It is a newly-realised energy 
which passes over directly into conduct. 

The dips in the curves are partly explained by the 
discussion of the peaks, but they deserve more than a 
passing word. They correspond to periods of indifference, 
which are marked by spiritual callousness. The con- 
ditions underlying this peculiarity have already been 
discussed. They are found in part in the fact that the 
religious development either supplements some other 
phase of activity — the life energy now expending itself 
in one direction, now in another ; or that it comes along 
with some other aspect of development as its normal 
correlative. The causes are to be looked for in the ebb 
and flow of religious feeling ; in the same individual, 
emotion is rhythmical. In the cases studied, 15 per 
cent, of the females and 13 per cent, of the males ex- 
perience two periods of marked religious interest, similar 



210 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

to the ones we have been describing. They are separated 
by from one to six or seven years, but usually by three 
or four years. The intervening period is often one of 
relaxation or indifference to religion. This will illus- 
trate : M. 'When n, while others were professing 
conversion, I was strongly moved to take part. I was 
thought too young to understand, and 1 was much 
grieved at being repressed. I lost interest, and had a 
tendency to seek lively company. I had no more 
marked religious impressions until 18; at that time I 
became serious, thoughtful and penitent. I found in a 
few days there had been quite a change.' F. * I joined 
church when 1 1. At about 13 there came a dark period 
of reaction ; it was the worst period of my child-life — of 
my whole life indeed. I was not sure I was a Christian, 
that I ever had been, or that I ever wanted to be. I 
was wayward, impatient of restraint, discontented, ill- 
tempered, selfish and hateful. I felt like doing the very 
things I knew I ought not to do. How I grew out of 
this period of restless unreligion I do not know. When 
our church was reorganised, when I was 15 or 16, I 
was glad to be in the fold again. There was some 
remorse for my past waywardness, but I soon felt that 
I had been forgiven and was happy in church life ; and 
it seemed as though those years of rebellion had been 
dropped out of my life/ In the restlessness and irrita- 
tion that are shown in this intervening period, one sees 
an evidence of the unsettled condition of the nervous 
system during the rapid growth period. In this par- 
ticular case it is accompanied by exaggerated sensitive- 
ness aroused by maladjustment of the complex growth 
processes. It is just as frequently marked, on the 
contrary, by deadening of the sensibility to finer im- 
pressions, and consequently by complete indifference 
to religion. F. 'For a little while before I was 16 
I turned to other ideals; I gave up trying. I felt 
myself very wicked. It seemed to me that some 
power outside of myself was turning me around. I 
never could say, " I was converted at such a time," but 



ADOLESCENCE— SPONTANEOUS AWAKENINGS Hi 

after I was 16 I had given up the idea of being one 
thing and seeming another.' The case of John Stuart 
Mill, as related in his autobiography, is a classic one to 
illustrate complete callousness. ■ I was thus, as I said 
to myself, left stranded at the commencement of my 
voyage, with a well-equipped ship and rudder but no 
sail ; without any real desire for the things which I had 
been so carefully fitted out to work for ; no delight in 
virtue or the general good, but also just as little in 
anything else. The fountains of vanity and ambition 
seemed to have dried up within me as completely as 
those of benevolence. . . . Thus neither selfish nor 
unselfish pleasures were pleasures to me. ... I 
frequently asked myself if I could, or if I was bound 
to go on living, when life must be passed in this manner. 
I generally answered to myself that I did not think I 
could possibly bear it beyond a year/ 

Sometimes, especially among women, the fresh 
activity or enthusiasm shows itself first, only to be 
overtaken soon by relaxation, uncertainty and indiffer- 
ence. Sometimes, on the contrary, adolescence begins 
with uncertainty and indifference, often accompanied 
by pain, and activity seems to come as a relaxation 
from the strain and tension under which the person is 
bound. With other temperaments these periods alternate 
with rhythmical regularity. A study of double awaken- 
ings reveals this interesting coincidence : in the case of 
females, the first experience is, on an average, at 12.1 
years, and the second at 15.4, making a difference of 
3.3 years. Among the males the average of the first 
is 13.7 and of the second 18.2, with a difference of 4.5 
years. This rise and fall in religious interest or activity 
in individuals seems to correspond almost exactly to 
the dip in the curves for groups of individuals. 

Until we know more of the conditions which underlie 
the ebb and flow of the emotional life of adolescence, this 
period of religious activity and indifference must simply 
be accepted as a fact. It is often remarked by persons 
who have had long experience in dealing with young 



2i2 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

people, that there are periods when efforts at religious 
culture are apparently almost entirely futile. If the 
cases we are studying are representative, such a period 
is definite and frequent enough to raise the question 
vigorously, What is the proper regimen of an adolescent 
during these periods? Should the efforts at spiritual 
training be intensified, or, on the contrary, should they 
relax and await the time when there is an active 
response to higher influences ? That such a period 
exists, suggests at least the necessity for patience in 
the treatment of youth — that at such times the boy or 
girl is not necessarily hopelessly given over to the 
control of evil. The spiritual callousness which shows 
itself on the surface, we are able to say with some degree 
of certainty, may be simply an indication that the life- 
forces are expending themselves in other directions, and 
that if the surroundings are free and healthy and normal, 
new life and fresh insight and awakened enthusiasm 
will, in all probability, come in due time of themselves. 



CHAPTER XVII 

ADOLESCENCE— STORM AND STRESS 

EARLY adolescence is clearly a time above all others 
when new forces are beginning to act, new powers to 
function. They seem to well up out of the sea of the 
unconscious. They show themselves first as feeling — 
sometimes as a fresh burst of life, as we have seen, but 
more often with a pain accompaniment. Ferment of 
feeling, distress, despondency and anxiety are so 
common a feature of these years that for a long time 
early adolescence has been designated a period of 
'storm and stress.' It is as if the being were strug- 
gling to give birth to new ideas and fresh life-forces, 
which it really does do a little later, as we shall see. 
It is as if one's being were strained or torn by the pent- 
up winds that sweep it, and which are trying in some 
way to vent themselves. 

It is by no means the exception, but the rule, for 
such a period to come. There is a well-marked display 
of the phenomenon in 70 per cent, of the females and 
52 per cent, of the males. 

There are, fortunately, two other sets of statistics on 
the prominence of storm and stress. Mr A. C. Nutt, 
in an empirical study on ' The Advantages of Philo- 
sophical Training/ reports that 67 per cent, of the 
cases studied passed through such a period. 1 In Dr 
Lancaster's study of adolescence, of 776 respondents, 
471, or 61.5 per cent, report spells of depression. 

1 Mr Nutt's thesis was a dissertation published privately for the Master's 
Degree at Ohio State University, Columbus, O. 

213 



2 r 4 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

The nature of Mr Nutt's study naturally called out a 
special class of subjects, which may account for the 
slightly larger per cent, in his statistics. Dr Lancaster's 
cases, like those in the present study, may be regarded 
as representative. The three classes of statistics are 
strikingly in accord. It appears conclusive that over 
60 per cent, of average American young people pass 
through such a period. 

Character of the Storm and Stress Experiences. 

The welling-up of new life-forces on to the plane of 
the higher consciousness is the central thing in the 
storm and stress phenomena ; but when this new life 
breaks at the surface, it manifests itself with as great 
variety as there is diversity, on the one hand, of tem- 
perament, and, on the other, of environmental conditions. 
When compared among themselves and viewed in their 
relations, these experiences form certain well-marked 
types, the most distinct of which we shall notice in 
turn. 

The most prominent of these types is the sense of 
incompleteness and imperfection. Underneath the surface 
there has been a moving onward toward an ideal, but 
the ideal has not yet assumed definite outlines. A new 
personality has been taking shape, but it is enshrouded 
in a mist. There is the same disquietude and unrest 
and aching irritation that we saw preceding conver- 
sion. The following extracts w r ill illustrate this state 
of mind: F. 'When 14 I had a pitiable struggle to 
do what I thought I ought. I often got out of bed 
and prayed for reconciliation and peace of mind. I 
struggled and strove to be willing to lead others to 
Christ 1 F. 'From 12 to 16 I lived a sort of up and 
down life ; I tried hard to be good. In times of deep 
trouble I have prayed and prayed in anguish of spirit.' 
F. ■ I suffered for years, thinking the joys of religion 
were not for me.' M. 'From 16 to 20 was a period of 
struggle ; I came upon higher ideals and did not live 



ADOLESCENCE— STORM AND STRESS 215 

up to them even approximately/ One sees in these 
instances, either explicitly or implicitly, the presence of 
a higher ideal, the difficulty of attaining it, and under- 
neath it all an incipient, constructive moral conscious- 
ness, which drives one on resistlessly toward some goal. 
One is often in a state of poise between various 
possibilities, and the uncertainty which is felt as to the 
proper mode of procedure increases the vexation of 
spirit. This is shown in the following instance : M. 
4 When about 18 I studied and thought long on the 
question of sanctification. The experience I sought 
was not in the conquest of marked evil habits, and on 
the whole was rather vague. Two or three times with 
fear and nervous apprehension I took the start, saying, 
" Now I claim as mine perfect holiness " ; but I found 
nothing very different save a trying nervous strain of 
anxiety and painful scrutiny lest some shade of 
thought should prove false my mental claim to perfect 
sanctification/ 

This feeling is often heightened until it becomes the 
sense of sin, with the meaning of which we have become 
familiar. The following quotations will suggest the 
similarity between that experience as it shows itself in 
these cases, and in those who pass through conversion : 
F. ' I was extremely nervous and passionate, and lacked 
self-control. I alternately sinned through weakness, 
and morbidly brooded over my wicked nature. At 
times I concluded I never could be good, and might as 
well not try ; then would follow a long fit of remorse/ 
F. 'When 11 I began to think about the future. I 
became restless ; everything I did seemed to be wrong ; 
then I would make fresh resolves not to do it again/ 
M. 'When 17 I began to seek salvation. I felt helpless 
and convicted of sin/ M. 'When 14 I fell in with 
wayward companions. I was upbraided by conscience. 
It was a terrible period of life; I felt remorseful and 
convicted of sin/ M. ' After my twelfth year I began 
to run with a set of boys whose influence was far from 
good. At first I was conscious I should not go with 



216 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

them and do the things they did ; every now and then 
something would come up to recall my old feelings, and 
for days I would be in great despair. About my 
fifteenth year I became once again very much interested 
in religious matters/ These experiences show the back- 
ground of the sense of sin and the sense of incomplete- 
ness ; they are the result of the present and ideal 
personality brought into contrast. There is a two-fold 
distinction between the sense of sin and the sense of 
incompleteness. On the one hand, the sense of sin is an 
exaggeration of the sense of incompleteness ; the hiatus 
between the ideal and the present attainment becomes 
so great that the latter is looked upon as something 
objective, as a thing in itself, and often as a thing which 
holds the personality in subjection. It is conditioned, 
perhaps, by an impulsive nature which is intermittently 
thrown into extremes of action and then into remorse. 
This is shown in the case above in which the person 
alternately sinned through weakness, and morbidly 
brooded over her wicked nature. On the other hand, 
the sense of sin is frequently distinguished from the 
sense of incompleteness by the presence in feeling of 
actual waywardness. 

A still further exaggeration of this same feeling is 
the fear of eternal punishment. The easiest explanation 
of these fears which come up in adolescence is that they 
are due to the sway of theological doctrines. A study 
of the cases reveals the fact, however, that they occa- 
sionally come to the front in persons whose religious 
training has been of the freest sort. This is well 
illustrated in the following experience of a woman 
reared in apparently the most liberal religious environ- 
ment. She writes : ' When 15 I began to have a horror 
of death. I did not believe in immortality, but had an 
almost frenzied despair at the idea of going out into 
nothingness. This grew until the idea made life 
infinitely, wretchedly hopeless to me. I would have 
become insane, I think, had hope not come/ Such 
experiences are due pretty clearly to organic physio- 



ADOLESCENCE— STORM AND STRESS 217 

logical conditions. It is apparently a haunting dread 
that comes over one when a larger spiritual world of 
truth is about to break in. It is apparently the idea of 
vastness, of infinity, that cannot be comprehended, and 
still must be grappled with. One woman writes : 
* From 8 to 17 I had horrid fears of having to live an 
eternal life/ Such instances seem to be frequent, in 
which the idea of punishment is not the essential 
background of the feeling, but the sense of complete 
incapacity to grasp some large conception. 

It is a singular fact, which Dr Scott ! has brought 
out in his study of c Old Age and Death/ that the 
thought of death, even when completely dissociated 
from religious conceptions, is most pronounced during 
adolescence. When life's forces are most rapidly becom- 
ing realised is the very time when the possibilities of its 
discontinuance appeal most strongly to consciousness. 
The feeling doubtless centres in the fact that the new 
personality is uncertain and unstable, and it feels vitally 
its own vacillating nature. In view of the fact that 
the most diverse development — towards virtue or genius 
or criminality, or whatever direction life takes — is 
usually begun in adolescence, it appears that youth 
often rightly interprets its instability and its liability 
to go out into nothingness. The point for us in this 
connection is that the fear of death and hell is not 
the direct result of the religious doctrine. On the 
other hand, we may go behind the dogma and see the 
conditions on which it rests. 

A type of the storm and stress experience which is 
second in frequency is brooding, depression and morbid 
introspection. These quotations will illustrate : F. ' I 
was naturally reticent about religion. At a revival I 
rose for prayer. Afterwards I thought I wasn't a 
Christian. The pastor talked to me about joining the 
church — I couldn't talk to him. I went back into my 
old feeling of unrest, and grew more and more into 

1 Colin Scott, op. cit., American Joiii'nal of Psychology \ Vol. VIII., 
p. 67. 



218 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

myself? F. 'From 13 to 17 I became very morbid. I 
took but little interest in life at all. The cause was 
probably ill-health/ M. 'At 24 I fell into morbid 
hopelessness and unwise self-dissection. Every imper- 
fection was thought a sin.' F. ' I joined the church on 
probation when 12. I went home and cried, for I didn't 
feel happy. I did everything I could to appease my 
conscience; read the Bible, told mother everything, put 
aside my jewellery — felt very solemn and unhappy.' 
These experiences arise, just as those we have already 
noticed, both in connection with and outside of the 
dominance of religious doctrine. The conditions under- 
lying them are not different from those which give rise 
to the sense of incompleteness and the sense of sin. 
There is, however, as the cause of this type, a greater 
passivity of temperament, more of a feeling of inability 
to reach out and attain. It is only different from the 
sense of incompleteness in that the degree of self- 
consciousness is greater. These distinctions are re- 
flected in the following instance. A woman writes : 
1 1 was building up my character with more self- 
consciousness than a child should have, and setting up 
a Puritanical conscience to judge of my progress. I 
applied to myself everything that I heard, and mourned 
that I was so selfish and unstable/ Sometimes this 
brooding and self-condemnation passes over into a 
desire to make propitiation for unworthiness and sin- 
fulness ; this results in asceticism. F. 'From 13 to 15 
religious enthusiasm and mysticism ran high. I had 
read my father's books on the mystics. I practised 
fasting and mortification of the flesh. I secretly made 
burlap shirts and put the burs next the skin, and wore 
pebbles in my shoes. I would spend nights flat on 
my back on the floor without a covering/ M. ' I didn't 
enjoy religious observance, yet forced myself to it. 
As a matter of conscience I spent hours each week on 
my knees/ 

Still another type which helps to complete the 
picture of the storm and stress phenomenon is distress 



ADOLESCENCE— STORM AND STRESS 219 

over doubts. This development usually comes a little 
later than those we have been describing. F. ' When 
16 the study of history led to disbelief of what I had 
been taught. All my ideals in life were smashed. I 
talked with college friends, and we spelled out many 
things together. Very bitter feeling accompanied it.' 
M. ' Up to 18 I had tried to weigh the matter of religion 
with the cool reflection of a judge. Now it loomed up 
large, and some solution seemed imperative. It enlisted 
my emotions, and the struggle was severe/ It is a 
tendency which usually develops when one comes in 
contact with a larger social environment or with intel- 
lectual conceptions which seem to undermine traditional 
belief. There is almost always evidence that the ex- 
ternal conditions interplay with subjective propensities, 
and not infrequently the doubt seems to arise without 
being awakened by adequate external circumstances. 
The most frequent occurrence of storm and stress in 
which there is an intellectual accompaniment is at the 
period in which there is a third rise in the curves for 
religious awakening shown in the last chapter. The 
rational life which now begins to show itself threatens 
to destroy the integrity of the self. One naturally 
craves wholeness, but when the life is driven on toward 
the point of view which seems to shatter the old, 
there naturally arise stress, tension and pain. 

When there is already a partial organisation of the 
new selfhood, it is sometimes difficult to adjust it to its 
environment ; in that event storm and stress expresses 
itself as friction against surroundings. F. c I joined 
church when 14 ; at 18 I could not believe many 
of the doctrines of the church. I felt myself a hypo- 
crite, and often wished that I had not joined.' M. 
'From 13 to 16 I dreaded coming in contact with 
Christian people ; to be compelled to attend family 
prayer, church and Sunday school was severe punish- 
ment. I often felt a voice saying " repent," but was too 
stubborn and would not yield/ 

Not infrequently the struggle is between the tend' 



220 



THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 



ency of the new life to express itself, on the one hand, 
in higher ideational centres, and, on the other hand, to 
centralise in the reproductive instinct ; consequently, 
storm and stress is the accompaniment of effort to co7t- 
trol passion. The struggle becomes so vital and far- 
reaching as to involve the whole religious nature, and 
sometimes takes a definitely religious turn. This is 
illustrated in the following quotations. As far as 
records show, this is confined entirely to the males. 
M. 'At 15 I made a desperate effort to control passion. 
I prayed and cried, but couldn't resist/ M. ' I had 
terrible struggles (19) to control passion. Often I 
would as soon have been dead as alive. I was in 
hell for about two and a half years.' M. ' From 14 
to 21 I yielded to secret sin. Each time came remorse 
and prayer for forgiveness. When 21 I confessed 
publicly having yielded to sin, and determined to con- 
fess each time/ 

A numerical estimate of the part which each of the 
above items plays is given in Table XX. 



Storm and Stress shown as— 



Feeling of Incompleteness and Im 

perfection .... 
Sense of Sin, Remorse, etc. . 
Friction against Surroundings 
Asceticism .... 
Brooding, Morbid Conscience, etc. 
Fear of Death or Hell . 
Connected with Beliefs . 
Connected with Control of Passion 



Females. 



Per Cent. Av. Age 



25 

9 

5 
31 

7 



14*3 
13 

15-6 
o 

13-6 
117 
16 
o 



Males. 



Per Cen t. Av. Age. 



II 

13 
16 

3 
6 
o 

3i 

8 



15*4 

14 

13-3 

o 

iS-6 
o 

207 
14*3 



Table XX. — Showing the relative prominence of the ways in which 
storm and stress manifests itself 

The per cents, give only the relative value of the 
various headings at the time when storm and stress 
reached its highest points in adolescence. That the fear of 



ADOLESCENCE— STORM AND STRESS 221 

death and hell, for example, does not appear in the column 
for males, does not mean that they were not troubled 
with it ; but in no case were such fears central in the 
adolescent disturbance among the males. The per- 
centages show that the feelings of youth centre princi- 
pally around the sense of incompleteness (aspiration 
after an ideal, striving, longing, etc.), the sense of sin, 
a morbid sense of right and wrong, friction against 
surroundings, and anxiety over questions of belief. 
Asceticism is almost absent. Fears rarely occur ; 
it was noticed also that fear seldom rose to the surface 
preceding conversion, however much it may have 
furnished a strong background for the sense of sin. 

The averages for the separate items are suggestive. 
Fears come earliest, as was also true in the study of 
conversion ; they are doubtless instinctive and racial, 
and issue forth most naturally during the earlier emo- 
tional awakening at the very beginning of adolescence. 
They do not involve a rational content — in fact, are 
apparently driven out by the advent of the higher con- 
ceptual life. The sense of sin is next, and comes earlier 
than the feeling of incompleteness, which latter involves 
a greater element of will and of insight. Latest are the 
struggles with doubts. The average ages for nearly 
all the types are, as one would expect, somewhat later 
in males than in females. There is the one exception 
of friction against surroundings, which comes later in 
females ; this is perhaps explained by the later develop- 
ment among females of an independent rational life. 

Taking all the types together, the average age of the 
beginning of the storm and stress period for females is 
13.6 years, and for males 16.5 years. This is nearly the 
same as the average age of the most rapid physical 
development of both sexes. It almost exactly coincides 
with the average age of spontaneous awakening, which 
is an additional evidence that the two sets of phenomena 
are closely connected. 

It is well to keep in. mind that the figures given 
above represent the beginning of storm and stress, and 

16 



222 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

not the time when it is at its height. The duration of 
it varies greatly with different individuals ; the average 
duration for females is 3.1 years, and for males 5.5 years. 
This shows that in general storm and stress covers the 
years during the middle of the adolescent period ; that 
is to say, during the period of greatest instability. It 
could not well come during the early pre-pubescent 
stage of adolescence ; for then the new life has not the 
check of ideas placed upon it, and so comes to the front 
as an emotional impulse. Nor is it likely to come 
during the last stage of adolescence, say, from 18 to 25, 
when habits have already begun to form, and the func- 
tional activities of mind and body have become more 
settled and constant. The fact that storm and stress 
should continue longer in males than in females is in 
harmony with most of the other facts we have noticed, 
and also coincides fairly with the relative duration of 
the conviction period preceding conversion, to which it 
closely corresponds. In each case the duration is about 
half as long for females as for males. 

The distribution of storm and stress through the 
years, giving the years when it began, is seen below. 
For the purpose of comparing males and females for the 
same years, the numbers between 8 and 18 — about the 
first and last years for females — were made out on the 
scale of 100. 

Age— .8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 
Females .2 2 7 5 21 15 15 5 11 9 4 

Males • . o o o 4 4 12 28 28 12 4 4 

The similarity of the series for both sexes is strik- 
ingly similar to the schematic curves for spontaneous 
awakenings above. In the case of females the numbers 
thicken up at the period of 12, 13 and 14, and at 16, 
with a distinct falling off at 15 — just as in the curve for 
conversion ; there is the further coincidence that the 
heavier part of both curves is at their earliest rise. The 
storm and stress curve for males is somewhat similar to 
that for spontaneous awakenings, except that it comes 



ADOLESCENCE— STORM AND STRESS 223 

about a year earlier. This correspondence makes the 
evidence yet more convincing that the two sets of 
phenomena are fundamentally related. 

In fact we may go one step farther and see that 
storm and stress and spontaneous awakenings and the 
conviction phenomena preceding conversion are all three 
results of the same underlying condition. The evidences 
are numerous and convincing for the close kinship of 
storm and stress and conviction. The average age of 
conversions and of the beginning of storm and stress 
differs in each sex by only a fraction of a year. The 
age distribution is almost the same, with the exception 
that the curve for the beginning of storm and stress is 
somewhat earlier than that for conversions, and that in 
the case of females the earlier rise in the storm and stress 
curve which comes at 12, 13, 14, is relatively much 
heavier than the later one — that is to say, storm 
and stress comes earlier than conversion. But if we 
bear in mind that the conviction phenomena precede 
the age of conversion on the average by as much as a 
year or more, we shall see that the two sets of pheno- 
mena really exactly coincide in the frequency of their 
age distribution. Again, we have just noticed that in 
both the length of duration was about twice as great 
in the case of males as of females. There is this 
difference, that the pre-conversion phenomena seemed 
to continue only about one-fifth as long as the storm 
and stress. This is one among the many indications 
that conversion is a condensed form of adolescent 
growth. Still more significant is the correspondence 
in the quality of the feelings in both cases. If we 
compare Tables IX. and XXL, we see that all of the 
types of experience which are present in storm and 
stress are likewise characteristic of the conviction period. 
A few comparisons will make the similarity clear. The 
feeling of incompleteness is the most prominent experi- 
ence ; this is clearly distinguishable from the sense of 
sin. Friction against surroundings during storm and 
stress reduces itself to the tendency to resist conviction, 



224 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

which is found to be a pronounced type of pre-conver- 
sion experience. Doubts and questionings in both 
cases are more characteristics of males, while brooding 
and morbid conscience apply almost exclusively to 
females. There are, of course, many differences in the 
tables, but they are explainable by differences in 
temperament and by the greater emotional strain that 
is brought to bear at the time of conversion. 

We are now in a position to see the relation existing 
between the three sets of phenomena — conversion, 
spontaneous awakening, and storm and stress. The 
fact which underlies them all is the physiological and 
psychical readjustments incident on the transition from 
childhood to manhood and womanhood. Spontaneous 
awakening and storm and stress are perhaps the purest 
and most characteristic types of adolescent phenomena. 
Conversion, as we saw, in its most characteristic aspect 
is identical with such spontaneous awakening as we have 
found in the so-called 'gradual growth' type. The 
central facts in adolescent life, namely, spontaneous 
awakening and storm and stress, have become crystallised 
into a dogma ; the result is conversion. Theology takes 
these adolescent tendencies and builds upon them; it 
sees that the essential thing in adolescent growth is bring- 
ing the person out of childhood into the new life of 
maturity and personal insight. It accordingly brings 
those means to bear which will intensify the normal 
tendencies that work in human nature. It shortens up 
the period of duration of storm and stress. The con- 
viction phenomena, we have seen, are about one-fifth 
as long as storm and stress, but they are very much 
more intense. The bodily accompaniments — loss of 
sleep and appetite, for example — are much more fre- 
quent. The essential distinction appears to be that 
conversion intensifies but shortens the period of storm 
and stress, by bringing the person to a definite crisis. 
Whether a person shall experience ' conviction ' or 
'storm and stress/ whether the new life shall begin as 
a ' conversion ' or a ' spontaneous awakenin j/ depends, 



ADOLESCENCE— STORM AND STRESS 225 

in part at least, upon certain temperamental and physio- 
logical causes, which determine the character of one's 
response to environment. 

A consideration of the differences between the sexes 
is of itself convincing of the physiological background 
of storm and stress. As may be seen in Table XX., 
these differences are so great, and so much in line 
with those which we have found heretofore, that 
their significance is unmistakable. Brooding and 
morbid sensitiveness belong almost exclusively to 
women — the ratio between the sexes is that of 31 
to 6. Fear, one of the deeper instincts, is men- 
tioned only by women, who likewise are swayed far 
more by the sense of incompleteness, the struggle after 
an ideal. Males, on the other hand, work out their 
ideals from the side of reason, as is seen in their greater 
anxiety over doubt — apparently as 31 to 8. The same 
thing is indicated in the -greater friction with surround- 
ings, which is an index of the power to judge and choose. 
In short, the constructive and rational elements are 
more pronounced in males. With them the push up 
through adolescence is more specialised, while women 
are more given to agonising their way. The contrast 
grows, doubtless, out of the constitutional unlikenesses 
between the sexes. These same differences are brought 
out by Clouston : ' Considering that the very highest 
mental and moral qualities of all, with the subtle differ- 
entiation between the male and female mental types, 
are only fully seen between 18 and 25 in the average 
human being, we must look still to the apparatus 
through which all this is brought about in the brain 
cortex. In its organisation and qualities alone is to be 
found the explanation of why in the male sex the mental 
development at that age is in the direction of action, of 
cognition, of duty, and of the higher imagination, while 
in the female sex it takes the direction of emotion, of 
protective instinct, of a craving for admiration and 
worship, and of the creation of an ideal " hero " to be 
loved and worshipped in return.' 



226 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

The storm and stress of women often clearly grows 
out of imperfect physical conditions, and many times 
there is a strong suggestion that such is the case when 
not definitely stated. ' Up to the age of 13 I think I 
felt real enjoyment in worship and in living the Chris- 
tian life as I then understood it. . . . From 13 until 17 
my life was less even. At times I was much troubled 
with doubts concerning religion, and even grew very 
morbid. ... I became so morbid at last that I think 
I took but little interest in life at all. As I look back I 
should trace the cause in ill-health, as I was quite 
unwell during most of this time, and under the care 
of a physician/ ' When I was a young girl I began to 
have a horror of death, not a fear of it for myself, but 
a sense of the baffling terror of it, for I had lost the 
peace and calm of my religious feeling, and I could not 
believe in immortality, or even in any life within me 
but the material one. . . . The year after I left school, 
this despair at the nothingness, which disbelief in a 
future existence made life seem to me— the horror of 
it, and also a longing infinitely deep and infinitely, 
wretchedly hopeless, made life fearful to me. Whether 
it was this which affected my health, or vice versa, I 
came on the edge of a nervous breakdown.' 

The records of the males likewise indicate that 
morbidity is the direct outcome of ill-health, although 
not so frequently as do those of the females. ' I 
have had some periods of great depression, especially 
during recent years. Sometimes these have arisen from 
ill-health, sometimes from disappointment and misfor- 
tune. At times I have prayed myself into a better state 
of mind, but ordinarily relief has come in the ordinary, 
natural way — returning health.' * I became thoroughly 
morbid on the subject of religion (after 12). I thought 
in all likelihood I had committed " the unpardonable 
sin." I was of a self-distrustful temperament, and easily 
given to forebodings of evil. I was also, I suppose, 
growing fast and perhaps rather low in physical vitality. 
My mother was alarmed about my condition, so utterly 



ADOLESCENCE— STORM AND STRESS 227 

hopeless in spirit, and wisely sent me to Massachusetts 
on a visit. The idea also came to me somehow that if 
I was a lost soul it was yet worth while to go on doing 
my duty just the same. I can see that I had here sub- 
stantially arrived at the state of being " willing to be 
damned for the glory of God !" ' 

The ill-health and the mental anxiety which so 
frequently arise simultaneously are doubtless expres- 
sions of the same basal condition, viz., the rapid 
growth during early adolescence, which entails great 
instability in the nervous system. 

The facts which precede show that adolescent storm 
and stress is due to the functioning of new powers which 
have no specific outlet, and are driven to force for them- 
selves an expression in one way or another. If there 
is no resistance to the expenditure of the new energy, 
there results a burst of life, fresh consciousness and 
appreciation of truth, a personal hold on virtue, joy 
and the sense of well-being ; but if there is no channel 
open for its free expression, it wastes itself against un- 
yielding and undeveloped faculties, and is recognised by 
its pain accompaniment, distress, unrest, anxiety, heat 
of passion, groping after something, brooding and self- 
condemnation. This stage of adolescence is the period 
of most rapid physiological readjustments, and conse- 
quently is characterised by great instability. In the 
study of the line of growth of the various psychic 
activities, for example, there are none of the curves 
which represent degrees of efficiency that have not 
great fluctuations during adolescence. The period from 
13 to 18 is the one likewise, according to the statistics 
of Gowers, in which epilepsy is most liable to occur. 
This disease is due to the mental and motor instability 
of the organism, which prevents the normal inhibition 
of the energy of the motor areas. The years of its 
greatest frequency are those likewise in which storm 
and stress most frequently occurs. The most marked 
readjustment at this period is that the areas in the cortex 
especially concerned in rational insight rapidly begin to 



228 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

function. These areas have during the period of child- 
hood lain dormant. * Looking to the gradual develop- 
ment of men up to puberty/ says Clouston, 'and the 
enormous and rather sudden leap that is then taken 
towards the higher mental life of the adult, we must 
assume an almost completed apparatus ready to be 
brought into use just as the centres of respiration are 
ready for their functions at birth.' 1 If it is borne in 
mind that the central nervous system is the most deli- 
cately adjusted part of the human organism, and that it 
requires a greater supply of blood to restore the metabolic 
changes which accompany mental activity, and that like- 
wise this is the period when the greatest strain is made 
on the circulatory apparatus because of the rapid physio- 
logical development in all parts of the body, one will 
appreciate the high degree of improbability that these 
new brain areas should begin to function in a harmonious 
manner. The available energy is not sufficient to 
irrigate these new areas properly in order to stimulate 
their functional activity to its highest degree of effici- 
ency. One sees striking evidence of this state of affairs 
in the fact that physiological disorders and spiritual 
difficulties are so apt to show themselves simultane- 
ously. Even under the most wholesome physiological 
conditions, it is to be wondered at that this readjustment 
should be made without friction and waste of energy. 
The child must come out of his little sphere and almost 
suddenly become the possessor of the spiritual wisdom 
of his kind. This is tersely stated in the words 
of Clouston : ' In the upward course of evolution the 
mental part of man's brain has been the highest point 
hitherto reached. It has been the goal towards which 
all else has apparently tended. It is the superstructure, 
without which all the other results of evolution would 
have had no meaning. Though it has probably taken 
hundreds of thousands of years of the evolutionary 
process to attain this high result, yet we must never 
forget that it takes only about five-and-twenty years 

1 Clouston, Neuroses of Development, p. 112. 



ADOLESCENCE— STORM AND STRESS 229 

and nine months to develop this organic miracle in an 
individual from the sperm cell and the germ cell up to 
the grandeur of function, the immeasurable complexity 
and the inexhaustible capacity that is possessed by the 
brain of a man of genius. Instead of one brain cortex 
in a thousand going wrong in this developmental pro- 
cess, or failing to reach a fair working capacity of 
function, the wonder is that in almost any case it ever 
attains this.' x 

The anguish of the person who undergoes storm and 
stress is analagous to the cry of the child at birth. He 
experiences a readjustment equivalent to a shock, and 
just as it requires a child usually one or two weeks to 
adapt himself to the new conditions and begin to grow, 
it is likewise perfectly natural that the youth should 
experience some years of turmoil in working out the 
higher spiritual readjustment. The pain accompani- 
ment is the natural result of the lack of harmonious 
functioning in the organism. Incipient ideas begin to 
make themselves felt, but do not easily fit in with old 
customs and habits, and the mental life is accordingly 
strained and torn. 

If the question should arise why pain results, it is 
answered by a similar question why, when a foreign sub- 
stance comes in contact with a physiological organism, 
there is no rest until the new body has been cast out 
or assimilated. It is the nature of the mind to work 
out its environment into a systematic whole. ' One of 
the greatest pains/ says Bagehot, * is the pain of a new 
idea/ 

The youth is not simply struggling with a single 
idea as in trying to solve a difficult problem, but the 
authority and majesty of the world-order is bearing in 
on him from every side. The wisdom of the race 
appeals immediately to his inner consciousness. The 
multiplicity of the demands made upon him leave him 
in a state of mental congestion. From the standpoint 
of his inner consciousness they appeal to him as vague, 

1 Clouston, Neuroses of Development, p. in. 



2 3 o THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

indefinable possibilities. Peace can never come until 
equilibrium is restored ; until he either gives up the 
struggle, or works over and assimilates the larger world 
that is crowding in upon him as part of his own 
personality. 

If our analysis so far is correct, it is evident that 
adolescence is one of the most critical periods of develop- 
ment, a time when the youth should be treated with the 
utmost delicacy and discretion. The germinating per- 
sonality is poised between an infinite variety of possi- 
bilities ; new forces are tending to sweep it in this way 
and that; whatever culmination offerees and crystallisa- 
tion of tendencies is undergone at this period will 
perhaps determine its whole future life. It is the point 
toward which all the lines of tendency during childhood 
converge, and interplay with racial forces to determine 
the direction of the later development. It is the 
point at which a blunder may prove most fatal, and that 
likewise in which wisdom and discretion can reap the 
greatest harvest. Especially in regard to religious 
training is the situation a delicate one. Religion is 
concerned with the deeper instincts, it touches life at its 
most vital point. It is noticeable, for example, that it 
is in connection with religious feeling that the patho- 
logical elements of adolescence reach their most malign 
nant form. Most of all, the difficulties of one at this 
critical point should be taken seriously. It should be 
borne in mind that the forces that are imperative to 
consciousness are out of the reach of the individual, that 
there is a new budding personality that is trying to 
make its way. It is usually filled with self-distrust, and 
what it needs most of all is to be inspired by con- 
fidence and wise counsel. 

It is doubtless the ideal to be striven after that the 
development during adolescence should be so even and 
symmetrical that no crisis would be reached, that the 
capacity for spiritual assimilation should be constantly 
equal to the demands that are made on consciousness. 
The attainment of such an ideal is perhaps to be reached 



ADOLESCENCE— STORM AND STRESS 231 

both from the physiological and the psychic side. From 
the physiological standpoint, the end will be partly 
attained when the conditions which are conducive to 
ill-health and unhygienic conditions during adolescence 
are counteracted : the avoidance of physical strains 
which make too great a draft on the nervous system, 
the observance of the laws of health in the way of whole- 
some exercise, outdoor games, fresh air, and the like, 
which stimulate circulation, and fill the brain with good 
rich red blood — these are means which will without 
doubt be conducive to spiritual health and beauty. On 
the psychic side, the dangers are readily appreciated. 
The fatality of impressing the fact of sin and personal 
unworthiness, of holding out before the adolescent, who 
is trying to develop, the horrors of eternal punishment, 
and of emphasising unduly the ideal of perfection, 
instead of stimulating the halting and self-distrustful 
soul towards wholesome activity — these and numerous 
other indiscretions which are so frequently indulged in 
need only be seen to be avoided. 

In view of the significance of the storm and stress 
phenomena, it is hardly safe to lay it down as an in- 
violable rule that the ideal is to escape it entirely. 
Unless the condition is distinctly pathological, it is 
conceivable that the youth is, in such times, in a most 
normal and hopeful state. If he is discreetly let alone 
at the proper time and helped over difficulties when the 
occasion demands it, if he is honest and earnest in 
struggling with his difficulties, the strife may simply mean 
that he is on the border of a new spiritual revelation. 
Not infrequently the respondents say that the greatest 
significance for after-development has come out of the 
struggles of youth. Not infrequently the feeling towards 
the struggle is like that expressed in Browning's lines — 

' Then, welcome each rebuff 
That turns earth's smoothness rough, 
Each sting that bids nor sit nor stand but go ! 
Be our joys three-parts pain ! 
Strive and hold cheap the strain ; 
Learn, nor account the pang ; dare, never grudge the throe ! ' 



CHAPTER XVIII 

ADOLESCENC E— D OUBT 

DOUBT seems to belong to youth as its natural heritage. 
More than two-thirds of the persons whose experience 
we are studying passed through a period sometime, 
usually during adolescence, when religious authority and 
theological doctrines were taken up and seriously 
questioned. To be exact, 53 per cent, of the women 
and 79 per cent, of the men have had a pretty distinct 
period of doubt, which was generally violent and intense. 
In Dr Burnham's ' Study of Adolescence/ three-fourths 
of his cases passed through such a period. 

We shall find that the reason underlying the pre- 
valence of doubt is a corollary to those we have come 
upon in the study of storm and stress. The racial push 
upward, and the individual adolescent development are 
both, most of all, a growth into a life of clear conscious- 
ness. It is a process of emerging from the sea of 
diffused sensitivity into a life which is characterised by 
clearness of definition, and which is fully organised on the 
basis of logical order and sequence. During childhood 
the force of law and order has been largely external ; 
but now the person must see it for himself — he must be 
the embodiment of law. In historical development the 
tendency has been for that which exists to lose sight of 
the reasons which produced it, and to become worked over 
into the nature of an authority. Although the authority 
may be based ultimately upon reasonable principles, the 
youth cannot accept it unless its excuse for being has 
worth to his own intellect. He turns logician and 

232 



ADOLESCENCE— DOUBT 233 

proves everything, and accepts that only which seems to 
possess a reason, or for which he can construct one. 

We shall be led a little way into the nature of the 
doubt phenomenon by considering the causes which 
bring it about. By far the most common occasion of 
doubt, with men especially, is the study of science and 
philosophy, or the coming into contact with new books 
or new educational surroundings which give rise to new 
ideas. The following instances are representative of a 
large class : M. ' I studied Darwin and Hume ; this 
with personal failure led to doubt of the divinity of 
Christ, the genuineness of the Old Testament, and the 
belief that spirit is separate from matter/ F. 'When 
16 I read the doctrine of evolution and the "The Idea 
of God." Everything seemed different ; I felt as if I had 
been living all my life on a little island and now was 
pushed off into a great ocean. I have been splashing 
around and hardly know my bearings yet. I don't see 
any need for a belief in the resurrection/ 

Our interpretation of adolescent phenomena has 
so far usually been a physiological and psychological 
one ; we now find some evidence of the sociological forces 
that give rise to adolescent experiences. One of my 
respondents, a skilled historian, writes : ' I have no doubt, 
if one could vary experimentally the time of contact 
with new scientific knowledge, and shield the mind 
from it for a longer or shorter time, in a great majority 
of cases this contact would determine the beginning of 
doubt instead of its being determined by the physio- 
logical stages. In my own case the beginning of doubt 
was much later than your physiological epoch, but 
coincident exactly with my first real contact with modern 
thought. With a change of historical conditions the 
whole tone of the biographies would change. The story 
of doubt, alienation, reconstruction, was not present in 
early New England history, I think, simply because the 
conflict between an advancing science and an unpro- 
gressive church was not known then/ The frequency 
with which educational influences are given as the 



234 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

occasion of doubt, amounting as it does to 73 per cent 
of men, shows conclusively that external surround- 
ings have a vast deal to do with calling out these ex- 
periences. Still further evidence is found in cases like 
the above in which doubts come relatively late in life. 
It is a satisfaction to the writer likewise to be free a 
moment from the psycho-physiological standpoint, but 
the escape from it is only apparent and for a moment. 
It should be admitted once and for all that the forces at 
work during adolescence which have most significance 
from the educational point of view, and also from the 
scientific, are those which arise in the interplay of one 
life upon another, and which grow out of the contact 
between the individual and institutional life. This is 
eminently true if one looks at the matter from the 
present epoch in racial development. But one finds 
oneself directly looking behind the sociological causes 
for the conditions which underlie them. Why do the 
forces that are at work in the social complex take effect 
during adolescence, and not at some earlier or later 
period in life ? Looking through the cases, we find that 
almost all of the doubts begin between 11 and 20. 
There are a few scattered ones during the twenties, and 
almost none after 30. The scattered ones that come 
later than 26 are so few as to tend to establish the law 
that doubt, like the other irregularities in development 
that we have been noticing, belongs almost exclusively 
to youth. If the person is thrown into constantly 
changing environments during the whole period after 
adolescence, one would expect, if the external influences 
were the only occasion for doubt, that there would be 
throughout life a continual turmoil and upheaval. 
Since that is not the case, we must look for deeper 
causes than the sociological and historical ones, and 
these are to be found again in the psycho-physiological 
organism. 

Further evidence of the justice of this point of view 
is found in the fact that doubts often spring up without 
any apparent cause. It is more often women than 



ADOLESCENCE— DOUBT 235 

men who are not able to trace the origin of them. F. 
4 As early as 11 or 12 dark thoughts would sweep like a 
nightmare over me without any cause. I thought it all 
fable which I had been taught about God and heaven/ 
F. ' I have had times of doubt when I wondered almost 
if anything were true and how we could believe it. 
This would usually come at times when I felt un- 
usually despondent and nothing went right; it would 
end as soon as I felt better/ These cases fall at the 
extreme other end of the series from those we first 
noticed. They are clearly traceable to physiological 
causes. The continuance of the series brings us upon 
those in which the subjective conditions play less and 
less part, and in which the external influences have 
greater and greater significance. 

It is common in both sexes for doubts to work their 
way quietly from small beginnings. M. * When 15 I 
got hold of a book giving the Egyptian origin of 
the Moses idea, and the Assyrian origin of Genesis, 
chapter i. I thought it sceptical. I did not suspect at 
the time that I had lost faith in anything. At 17, at high 
school, I was growing sceptical, though I did not 
recognise it at, the time. I remember to have suspected 
the principal of " doing " his piety as an academic re- 
quirement. Later, I stood quite outside the Bible.' 
F. ' After prayer I would repeat slowly, " For Christ's 
sake," wondering what it meant. When 15 I became 
disappointed in the Bible in not finding beautiful things 
there. Revulsion came, and I said to myself, " I don't 
like the Bible." I did not allow the thought to grow. 
When 18 my sister said she did not know whether to 
believe in Christ or not. I sprang up excitedly and 
took her to task severely. In a year I doubted as much 
as she.' 

These instances illustrate the force of the uncon- 
scious activity of the mind, and show a nature which is 
already ripe for the growth of doubt. 

There are several other causes mentioned as leading 
to doubt, such as calamity, the misconduct of others, 



236 



THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 



unanswered prayer and ill-health. The most prominent 
influences mentioned as occasions of doubt are shown in 
Table XXL 



Occasion of Doubt. 



Educational Influences 

Natural Growth 

Calamity (Death, Misfortune, etc.) 

Misconduct of Christians 

Unanswered Prayer • 

Ill-health .... 



Female. 



Per Cent. 
23 
47 

9 
2 

7 
12 



Male. 



Per Cent, 

73 

15 

9 

3 
o 
o 



Table XXI. — Showing the relative prominence of the occasions of 
religious doubt. 



Taking both sexes together, educational influences 
stand highest ; considering the men alone, they are 
more frequently mentioned than the other causes to- 
gether. Doubt most often comes in the case of women 
as a natural growth, and generally bears strong evi- 
dence that it has its rise in physical disorder. These 
differences, together with the fact that unanswered 
prayer and ill -health occasion doubts only among 
women, are fresh evidences for the differences between 
the sexes that have already been observed and need no 
further discussion. 

Turning now to the objects of doubt, we find them 
to be, principally, those things which have become 
crystallised into creeds and theologies and passed on 
by tradition. If we consider both sexes together, the 
things doubted in the order of frequency are: the 
authority or inspiration of the Bible, the divinity of 
Christ, some attribute of God (as His goodness or 
justice), His existence, and immortality. This is the 
order, also, through which the doubts usually progress 
in the same individual, although the variations from 
this sequence are numerous, and there are several other 
objects of doubt not included in this list. The illus- 



ADOLESCENCE -DOUBT 237 

trations given below are typical of the progress of 
doubt. It should be observed how usual it is for doubt 
to pass on from one thing to another. M. 'When 18 
certain educational influences led me to doubt the 
absolute truth of the Bible. It was a gradual process. 
By 20 I disbelieved in a personal God. The way was 
thought out step by step. I stopped prayer because it 
seemed idolatrous. At 21 I stopped Bible reading/ 
M. ' I intended to enter the ministry. I began the 

critical study of the Bible under . Doubts set in. 

In practical life also I came to see that what I sought 
sticcessfully was sought under natural law. The next 
five or six years was a period of constant transition 
under study and reflection until the supernatural factor 
disappeared, and by 28 I should have answered the 
question of God and immortality in the negative/ F. 
1 At 1 5 I began to give up the faith of my childhood point 
by point, as it would not stand the test of reason. First 
the belief in miracles went, then the divinity of Christ ; 
then, at 18, metaphysical studies showed me that I 
could not prove the existence of a personal God, and 
left me. without a religion/ F. 'When 18 I began to 
doubt the Bible. I read books inclined to increase my 
doubt. By 19 I ceased to find any firm ground to stand 
on in Christ's atonement; it didn't seem just or right 
I wanted to stand before God with no intercession* 
Soon a personal God gave way to power — vague, un- 
formed. Sometimes I called it Goodness/ 

In some of these instances the cumulative effect of 
doubt is observable ; if one thing is found which will 
not stand the test of reason, it leads to the rejection of 
other things with which the first is supposed to be 
inextricably bound up. 

The progress of doubt is found also in exactly the 
opposite direction. The line of approach already con- 
sidered is the customary one for men, who begin with 
doubts in regard to specific things, and work their way 
gradually towards the most abstract and universal 
conceptions. Women usually take just the opposite 

17 



2 3 8 



THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 



course; with them doubt most often begins with the 
conception of the existence of God, or by lumping 
everything together and questioning it all at once. 
F. 'I had a religious awakening when 12. Two years 
later I had bitter struggles for my belief. Reason 
seemed to undermine my faith on every hand. When 
praying, the question continually arose, " Where is God, 
to whom I am praying ? Who is He ? " ' F. ' I joined 
church at 13. Shortly I began to think about God — 
where He came from, etc. I kept dwelling on it till I 
almost doubted His existence/ F. * I joined church at 
12. Since then I have had many doubts and struggles. 
I have had the feeling that I didn't really believe what 
I said I did. This has gradually deepened until I don't 
know (17) what I do believe.' F. ' Doubts began at 20 
in connection with the death of a very dear friend. Its 
form was philosophical agnosticism, beginning in 
materialism and distrust of traditional faith.' 

Some of the more important details with regard to 
the things first doubted are seen in Table XXII. It 
shows only the objects concerning which doubt had its 
beginning. It will be seen from the table that doubts 



Doubt began in regard to— 


Females. 


Males. 


Traditional Customs and Beliefs (generally 
specific) ...... 

Authority or Inspiration of Bible 

Divinity of Christ ..... 

Existence of God ..... 

Some Attribute of God (Goodness, Justice, 
etc.) 

Everything ...... 

Immortality ...... 

Lives of Christians ..... 

Special Providence ..... 

Not specified ...... 


Per Cent. 

8 
12 

5 
17 

14 

14 

5 

5 

8 

12 


Per Cent. 

25 

20 

12 

5 

5 
7 
2 
2 

22 



Table XXII. — Shoun7ig the relative prominence of the first objects 
of doubt, 



ADOLESCENCE— DOUBT 239 

usually centre around the conventional theological 
doctrines, although it is highly probable that the 
inherent disposition to doubt would find some other 
object if this were not selected. The frequency with 
which there is one tremendous doubt of ' everything ' 
indicates an organic revulsion. 

In the table the difference between the sexes above 
noted comes out in statistical form. The first three 
items, namely, doubt of the authority or inspiration of 
the Bible, the divinity of Christ, or some other traditional 
custom and belief, all of which are of a specific nature, 
are much more frequently entertained by men. The 
existence of God, on the contrary, or some attribute of 
God — conceptions w r hich are much more central and 
vital, more abstract and general — or a tendency to ques- 
tion everything are more often the beginning of doubt 
among women. Women respond in more organic and 
indiscriminate ways ; live more in the heart of things 
than men. A definite circumstance or experience is 
apt to be interpreted by them in universal terms. The 
doubts of special providence, which are not mentioned 
by the men, usually come in connection with personal 
disappointment or unanswered prayer. 

The distribution of the ages at the beginning of 
doubt, made out on a scale of a hundred, for both sexes, 
gives this series : — 

Age — 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 
Female . 12 6 12 14 16 16 10 10 2 4 o o o o o o 
Male . . o 2 2 12 10 7 7 17 10 10 2 5 7 2 2 5 

We find in these figures an important contrast 
between the age at which doubts set in, and the age of 
the other adolescent disturbances which we have been 
studying. In fact, the distribution of the ages in this 
respect exactly contradicts the other curves. Doubts 
begin oftenest with females at 15 and 16, which is later 
than the period of most rapid physical growth. The 
period of 12 to 13, at which the conversion curve 
Culminated, shows a decided falling off in regard to the 



2 4 o THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

number of doubts. Among the males there are fewer 
cases at 16 and 17, which are the ages of the culmina- 
tion of the conversion curve and also the period of most 
rapid physical growth, but just before and just after this 
point there is a thickening up of the number of cases 
of the beginning of doubt. This contradicts too the 
curves for both spontaneous awakening and physical 
growth. That is, doubts for both sexes seem to arise 
most frequently outside of the nascent periods for 
physical and spiritual activity. This leads us to the 
important conclusion that the beginning of doubt corre- 
sponds to the period of arrested mental and emotional 
activity. The individual records tend to bear out the 
same conclusion, in that the period of doubt is frequently 
at the time of least religious enthusiasm. One person 
writes: 'From 11 to 16 I had less religious feeling, 
although I always prayed, attended church and believed. 
I began, however, to use my reason more, and sometimes 
to wonder why things in this world and the next were 
as the Bible stated.' Whether the doubt is the cause of 
the apparent spiritual relaxation or the result, would be 
hard to determine ; — the interesting fact for us is their 
coincidence. The physical and mental inactivity seems 
to be an index of the specialisation of development 
which is taking place at this period, and which centres 
in the perfection of the rational life. Expressed in 
physiological terms, it is the period of development of 
the intellectual centres in the cortex at the expense of 
other areas. 

This corresponds to the point of view taken in the 
last chapter in the discussion of storm and stress. 
These two aspects of adolescent development have much 
in common ; in fact, in more than 40 per cent, of the cases 
in both sexes, storm and stress and doubt both occur 
either at the same time or successively. That the two 
phenomena are somewhat different is also suggested 
by the statistics. Twenty-seven per cent, of women 
undergo storm and stress without accompanying doubts, 
while, on the other hand, 37 per cent, of the men experi- 



ADOLESCENCE— DOUBT 241 

ence doubts without storm and stress. The two pheno- 
mena seem to have this in common, that both indicate a 
rapid development of the intellectual life. There is this 
difference, however, that storm and stress is a growth of 
a more confused, general, and organic nature than doubt ; 
in the latter the development seems to be in the same 
brain areas, but is of a more specialised kind. The 
same difference is suggested by the fact that doubts 
come later. Taking the average of the years when both 
sets of phenomena begin, we find that doubt occurs later 
on the average by one and a half years. The doubt 
period thus comes towards the latter end of adolescence, 
which is the time, as we have seen, when the intellectual 
life has greater worth in religious development. 

This coincides fairly well with the period of the most 
frequent occurrence of adolescent insanity as distin- 
guished from epilepsy and hysteria, the former being of 
a distinctly mental nature as distinguished from the 
latter. 1 Storm and stress and doubt are developments 
of the same essential nature, but in the former there is 
more of the emotional quality which contains incipient 
ideational life in solution, while in doubt the intellectual 
life has become more definitely crystallised. 

The facts just noted indicate in a pointed way one 
of the essential sex differences ; men are more apt to 
have doubts without storm and stress, while women are 
more apt to undergo a ferment of feeling in the absence 
of doubt. Only 10 per cent, of the men have storm and 
stress without being plunged into doubt, and exactly the 
same small percentage of women have the intellectual 
difficulties without accompanying distress — that is, we 
may say that adolescence is for women primarily a period 
of storm and stress, while for men it is in the highest sense 
a period of doubt, 

A word should be said in regard to the meaning of 
doubt as a step in development. We have scarcely 
outgrown the conception, especially in ecclesiastical 
circles, that to doubt is sin. There are several instances 

1 Clouston, Neuroses, p. 115. 



242 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

in the records we are studying in which, when honest 
questionings have occurred during late childhood or 
youth, they have been hushed by well-meaning parents 
or teachers. The result is usually a weakling who 
cannot grapple with the more serious matters of life, or 
a person in whom the normal currents of life are dammed 
up only to have them break out more violently at some 
later time. It should be seen that doubts are a part of 
a development which, given certain temperaments, is 
inevitable, and which is natural and normal if the per- 
sonality is to attain its highest possibilities. If the full 
significance of this development is appreciated, we shall 
not be surprised to find that the higher life-purposes 
develop and intensify simultaneously with the growth of 
doubt. One person writes : ' It was during my senior 
year at college that I first began to feel any troublesome 
doubts as to the things I had been taught; the influence 
of study in the natural sciences, and the reading of some 
of the Huxley controversial articles, were responsible in 
part for this. However, my religious intensity increased 
at this time, and it was during this year that a convic- 
tion began to form in my mind that it was my duty to 
become a minister/ Doubt is a process of mental 
clarification ; it is a step in the process of self-mastery ; 
it is an indication that all the latent powers are begin- 
ning to be realised. A prominent clergyman of an 
orthodox church says : i I have not passed through a 
series of beliefs ; all my thinking has been an expansion 
of the fundamental conception, reached while in college, 
that the death of Christ was a declaration that there 
never was, and never could be, an obstacle between 
God and man. I always hail doubt as sure to reveal 
some unexpected truth. As often as I have tried to 
dodge doubts I have suffered. My real doubts have 
always come upon me suddenly and unaccountably, and 
have been the precursors of fresh discovery/ Instead 
of trying to crush doubt, it would be wiser to inspire 
earnestness and sincerity of purpose in the use of it 
for the discovery of truth. If doubts are evil, it is 



ADOLESCENCE— DOUBT 243 

because there is a wicked nature behind them. Doubt 
is a means of calling up and utilising the latent possi- 
bilities of one's nature. If there is a boundless sub- 
stratum of healthy life on which to draw, and if there 
is a high degree of earnestness in the desire to know 
truth in order to use it, doubts are rather to be met 
and mastered than to be shunned. 



CHAPTER XIX 

ADOLESCENCE— ALIENATION 

MORE than half of those who doubt, or who experience 
storm and stress, come a little later to feel themselves 
quite outside the conventional mould. Leaving out the 
women from 16 to 19 inclusive, since many of them 
may have become reactionary later, we find that 35 
per cent, of all the women and 47 per cent, of all the 
men have passed through a more or less definite period 
of alienation ; or, we may say, more than one-third of 
all the persons studied indicate such experiences. The 
duration of the period of alienation varies all the way 
from a brief space of time to several years, or, judging 
by the person's present attitude, it may become a 
permanent condition. The most frequent length of 
duration is 5 to 6 years. Alienation is distinguished 
from storm and stress and doubt in part by the quality 
of the feelings which attend it ; they are less intense and 
very different in character from those of the periods we 
have been studying. A few typical phrases will suggest 
the difference. The feelings during doubt and storm 
and stress are described in such phrases as these : * I 
had a very bitter feeling/ c It was a pitiable struggle.' 
' I went on groping in darkness/ * I suffered much in 
silence/ ' I chafed against restraint/ * It was a pro- 
longed fit of remorse/ ' I prayed in anguish of spirit/ 
1 1 was filled with mental distress/ ' I wrestled for the 
salvation of others/ ' My spirit seemed to be crying 
out in despair and longing/ ' I became morbid, and 

244 



ADOLESCENCE— ALIENATION 245 

thought I had committed the unpardonable sin/ l I 
was in spiritual agony. My health was shaken/ 

These, on the contrary, represent the feeling during 
alienation : 4 1 was gloomy and cynical/ ' People said 
I was getting cross/ ' I never think of religious sub- 
jects if I can help it/ ' I came to a state of desperate 
indifference/ * On thinking how the world-conscious- 
ness might be even blinder and less organised than my 
own, I gave up the search for God, and no longer 
cared even 'to die/ t Church got monotonous and mean- 
ingless, and I stopped going altogether/ ' I professed 
to believe nothing/ ' The whole thing seemed hollow 
mockery. I began to be disgusted with religion, and 
gradually dropped religious considerations altogether/ 

These two sets of phrases represent fairly the dis- 
tinction between this later adolescent period and the 
earlier one. They indicate that the new personality 
has a point of view of its own, and is gaining for itself 
an independent standpoint. It has greater poise and is 
better able to judge the situation for itself. This is 
most clearly shown in those instances in which there is 
a clear rejection of convention. If the young life has 
not yet complete possession of itself, it still has firm 
enough grounding stubbornly to insist upon itself, as is 
shown in the tendency to become gloomy and cynical, 
and to be cross when things do not go right. 

Alienation is most commonly the natural outgrowth 
of doubt ; one reasons, analyses and criticises ; one thing 
after another is set aside, until finally the whole fabric 
seems to fall together. The result is a temporary 
philosophical reconstruction, which seems to stand 
outside of conventional religion. ' I began questioning 
everything. Popular beliefs seemed unreasonable. I 
studied science when 19. Rejected old beliefs, and find 
it impossible (20) to come back to them/ M. 'I was 
reared with Calvinisticsurroundings. I left home at 18; 
talked with liberal people ; listened to liberal clergymen. 
It resulted in my conversion from dogmatic tradition. I 
came to regard tradition as superstition/ M. 'When 



246 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

I began to reason, and read books that taught common 
sense, I was disturbed. I ended it by becoming con- 
vinced that what I had been taught was false and 
wrong/ This process, largely an intellectual one, is far 
the most common among males. 

Just as frequently alienation is the natural out- 
growth of storm and stress ; the new attitude is worked 
out unconsciously, and comes as a natural growth. 
One aspect of this development is shown in the follow- 
ing instance : A woman writes, ' I joined the church 
when 17. I went to Communion once, but my feeling 
was only one of horror ; it seemed heathenish. I 
never went to church after that or read the Bible, but 
prayed much. I believed in holiness, but was horrified 
at what I saw around me. I still believe (24) that that 
branch of the church which I joined and its doctrines 
are death to the religious life/ In addition to the 
native reactionary tendencies which lie back of such an 
experience, there has been unconsciously a growth of 
the individual point of view which makes a personal 
grasp of truth seem to transcend traditional beliefs. In 
the following instance, likewise, one sees how the growth 
in the same direction precedes the consciousness of it. 
M. * From 18 to 24 I gave up all the traditional beliefs 
one by one. I left off Bible reading and attending 
church. Spiritual growth preceded the doubt ; I 
always felt beneath me a strong foundation of truth ; 
it was giving up a weaker for a stronger incentive to 
virtue/ 

It cannot be too much emphasised that the occasion 
of the reactionary tendencies in many instances is 
traceable to ill-health, just; as we found in storm and 
stress. This is true especially of women. F. * All my 
life has been a struggle with doubt, disease and nervous- 
ness, which affected my religious nature. I had nervous 
dyspepsia, was anxious, and thought only t)f myself. 
I had a period of asceticism and reaction, with no out- 
ward cause/ F. ' With a highly sensitive organism, 
life has been a continual struggle with hereditary 



ADOLESCENCE— ALIENATION 247 

tendencies. At times I believe in no future and no 
God. Such feelings come when my vitality is weak. 
Within the last three years, with physical culture, I am 
growing stronger physically and mentally, and life has 
more meaning.' 

Frequently the direct cause leading to one's aloof- 
ness is found in environmental conditions. The individual 
and his surroundings come into antagonism. There is a 
clash. In the inability of the' person to harmonise 
himself with his environment, his integrity is threatened 
and is preserved only by his pitting himself against his 
surroundings. F. i One day, while calling at his house, 
a minister suddenly asked me if I was a Christian. I 
had a terrible dread of being talked to about religion, 
and blurted out, " No ! " I was so worried I could not 
sleep for a long time after that. I was more careless 
about doing right. I could listen coolly to prayer and 
see baptism without the least bit of feeling. I only 
felt far away from it all/ F. ' I suffered one bereave- 
ment after another, and finally (21) bitterness filled 
my heart toward the avenging God whom I believed 
in. I tried sincerely to believe there wasn't a God, as 
this seemed less wicked than hating Him. For several 
years I had no religion at all.' M-.-'I heard the first 
indecent story I ever listened to told by an officer in 
the church. It was a great shock. It led me to doubt 
his sincerity, and that of everyone, the worth of re- 
ligion, the inspiration of the Bible, and the existence 
of God. I read books against the Bible, talked with 
irreligious men, studied other religions, read of crimes 
committed in the name of Christ' 

Alienation seems often to be due to the physio- 
logical necessity of gaining relaxation from the strain 
of storm and stress and doubt. It is one of the best 
established Jaws of the nervous system that it has 
periods of exhaustion if exercised continuously in one 
direction, and can only recuperate by having a period 
of rest. This will become more clear in the discussion 
of the fluctuations which follow conversion. The point 



248 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

of interest in this connection is that the same ebb and 
flow of spiritual interest occurs whether conversion is 
experienced or not, given only a temperament which 
works itself up to a lively pitch in the earlier adolescent 
stage. This is clearly shown in the following instances : 
F. * I had a desire to lead a Christian life. Time 
after time, until 16, I tried to experience what others 
said they did. I felt myself a hypocrite. After trying 
over and over I fell into a state of absolute indifference. 
I could sit through the most serious revival and make 
fun. I thought professing Christians hypocrites/ F. 
' After joining church I found that my profession of 
religion hadn't altered my conduct and I doubted that 
to which I stood pledged. The well-meant efforts of a 
friend radically different from myself in temperament 
made bad matters worse. I decided desperately that I 
didn't care.' M. ' I didn't believe in the doctrines of 
the church. I disbelieved in resurrection of physical 
bodies, a literal hell, an angry God, etc. I professed to 
believe nothing, though I did believe in God and His 
goodness.' Closely connected with these are the cases 
in which the person holds aloof in order to see things in 
their true perspective. M. ' For a year or two (18 to 
20) I stayed away from church entirely, in order not to 
be influenced unduly by persons.' This shades off into 
the truth-seeking spirit which is willing to stand or fall 
by personal conviction. M. ' I began studying Plato's 
philosophy. I rejected miracles, I accepted conditions 
and took the consequences.' 

The most central principle underlying the whole 
alienation phenomenon is found, doubtless, in the necessity 
to preserve in one way or another the wholeness of the 
individual life when it is threatened with dissolution. 
In the presence of conflicting forces within and with- 
out, this one thing cannot be surrendered, namely, the 
integrity of one's own personality ; to surrender this 
would be to do violence to one of the most central and 
deep-seated instincts. In studying the cases together it 
appears that people avail themselves of all the means 



ADOLESCENCE— ALIENATION 249 

possible for accomplishing this end. Those who are of 
an active and vigorous temperament, if they are to 
preserve their own identity in the midst of the 
conflict between the personal and social will, can only 
maintain their equilibrium by expending their energy in 
some positive way ; the result is a vigorous defence of 
the personal point of view as against that of society. A 
passive temperament, on the other hand, may find its 
salvation by sinking into a state of indifference, by 
letting the old problems take care of themselves and 
give place to other interests. Half-way between these 
two extremes is the temperament which becomes 
irascible and gloomy and cynical. It stands outside of 
the conventional forms and lets society go its own way. 
It either utters a wail at the friction it feels between 
itself and the social complex, or remains doggedly 
outside and growls at the current of life as it is passing. 
It frequently happens that one's wholeness is preserved 
and the pain of the friction is allayed by a playful 
attitude towards the beliefs and actions of other people. 
A friend of the writer who is a lecturer, but who feels 
keenly beforehand the ordeal of facing an audience, be- 
comes not only jocular but positively foolish, as he himself 
admits, in order to divert his attention from the task 
before him. It is noticeable that the richest humour is 
that which has beneath it an undertone of pathos. Per- 
haps, if rightly understood, the cause underlying an 
experience like the following would be found essentially 
to consist in a personality trying to make sure of itself. 
One of the respondents writes : ' When 16 I experienced a 
period of scepticism, when infidelity seemed fascinating 
and romantic to me, and there was a pleasure in shock- 
ing my friends by avowing such sentiments. It was 
due, I think, to the natural unrest of the girl developing 
into womanhood. 1 Perhaps such attitudes should not 
be taken too seriously. 

This leads to the consideration of another cause 
underlying the reactionary tendencies. The occasion of 
them seems often to be the pleasure that comes from 



250 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

the sense of freedom. The doubter is inventive and 
constructive, and delights in feeling that be is organising 
his own world and is responsible to no one. F. ' I didn't 
think it necessary (24 to 29) for a healthy person in the 
prime of life to believe in a personal God.' F. i By the 
help of mystical writers, the " Gospel of Divine 
Humanity" and Emerson, I passed out of orthodox 
Christianity into the free atmosphere of thought/ M. 
' I perceived that evolution conflicted with current 
orthodox beliefs and held to it more strongly ofi that 
account.' These attitudes seem likewise to rest back on 
one of the deeper instincts, the pleasure in free activity, 
and another closely allied to it, the delight in personal 
freedom and independence. 

In understanding the phenomena of alienation it 
should be noted that they occur usually towards the 
latter end of the adolescent period ; it is the time when 
the intellectual life is coming into prominence. The 
storms and difficulties of earlier adolescence are being 
settled, and settled from the standpoint of the intellect. 
As we have noticed, epilepsy and hysteria each indicate 
an unsettled condition of the motor centres in the brain 
at this period ; these largely disappear and give place 
to adolescent insanity itself, which is a mental develop- 
ment. Religious doubt, storm and stress, conversions 
and spontaneous awakenings rarely occur during this 
later period. During doubt and storm and stress the 
person is wrestling helplessly with forces beyond his 
control, which tend to distract and tear his spirit. It is 
largely a struggle between the powers that be and the 
force of his own individual will. During the period of 
alienation there is less feeling of any kind. There is 
greater poise. The person has either dropped the 
struggle or decided it for the time in favour of his own 
will. The attitude is that of indifference or of cynicism 
and antagonism. 



CHAPTER XX 

ADOLESCENCE— THE BIRTH OF A LARGER SELF 

If we stop to glance at the various directions in which 
the religion of youth tends to develop, adolescence will 
appear at best to be a very complex affair. We have 
seen that if we take a cross-section of the composite 
life of a large number of people at any year during 
adolescence, it has great diversity of colouring ; there 
seem to be forces interplaying, opposing and conspiring 
within any one year. If we attempt to follow these 
forces through successive years, there is distinct con- 
tinuity, although at the same time great variety in the 
lines of development We have found that almost 
simultaneously there come in different individuals, and 
occasionally overlapping in the same individual, the 
distinct breaks in character which we call conversion, 
the sudden bursts of life which we have termed spon- 
taneous awakenings, fresh enthusiasms and heightened 
activity in religious work, the emotional strain of storm 
and stress, and, mingled in among these, periods of 
carelessness and indifference. These latter coincide, like- 
wise, with the periods of most rapid physical develop- 
ment, and come at about the same time as the great 
physiological transformation which centres in the awak- 
ening of the reproductive life. If, for example, we take 
the average age of all these events (it should be borne 
in mind that averages in these cases show only the most 
general tendencies, and even blur the finer distinctions), 
they differ only by a fraction of a year. Later by a 
little comes the doubt phenomenon, and still later, 

251 



252 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

towards the end of adolescence, the tendency towards 
alienation from conventions. We have found indica- 
tions all the way along of essential Unships existing 
in the character of these phenomena aside from their 
chronological relationships. The question for us now 
is to inquire if we can find a simple point of reference 
for all these phenomena which will bring them into 
system and order and relative simplicity. What is 
the central thing in the whole adolescent development, 
if there is one, from which all these lines of growth 
diverge ? 

If we follow up the directions indicated by the facts 
in the preceding chapters, they seem to lead us toward 
this fundamental point of view : back of the whole adoles- 
cent development, and central in it, is the birth of a new 
and larger spiritual consciousness. The little child begins 
life without a consciousness of his selfhood ; he looks 
out upon the world as purely external ; his hands and 
his feet he gazes at as objects and not as part of him- 
self. It is two or three years before he uses the pronoun 
' 1/ and perhaps nearly as long before he is conscious 
of his selfhood. Before this time, it is true, this fact 
is implicitly present in his consciousness, as is shown 
in the instinct of self-preservation which shows itself 
almost from the beginning, but it has not yet arisen 
into clearness. During the early years of childhood 
the self consists largely in the physiological mechanism 
and the complex of physiological sensations which come 
through the senses. Somewhat of the outer life has 
already been taken up into the self, but the world is 
largely looked upon still as external and objective. 
The essential thing in children's religion, we found, was 
the tendency to look upon God and heaven as something 
above themselves, and the body of religious doctrine as 
something external and expressed in ecclesiastical cus- 
toms and doctrines. But there comes a time in the normal 
process of development, when the essence of all these 
things is worked over as itself belonging to the subjective 
life. 'God is a Spirit': 'The Kingdom of Heaven i§ 



ADOLESCENCE— BIRTH OF A LARGER SELF 253 

within you/ Christ was constantly saying. ' He that 
hath ears to hear let him hear/ These are the attempts 
to transform life from a purely external point of view, 
and lead one to find the central truths of religion within 
oneself, just as the hands and feet were discovered by 
the child to belong to itself. This birth of a selfhood, 
the awakening of life to a self-conscious appreciation 
of things, is the central fact underlying the variety of 
adolescent phenomena. For the sake of clearness let 
us represent this fact by a diagram as shown in 
Figure 14. 



/ \ 





/ 

1 
1 

\ 



* — , ."- 

w 

FIGURE 14. — Diagram representing adolescent azvakening. 

The self of childhood we shall call ' i ' in (a). As the 
child's higher psychic life begins to have worth in the 
complex of impressions that are interpreted as making 
up its own personality, it seems to be brought in contact 
with a larger world outside its former self, represented 
by ' 1/ Either gradually or very suddenly, as the case 
may be, these new elements of which it has an inkling 
flock together and break in as a part of the real self 
instead of something outside of consciousness. The 
condition now is shown in % (J?) where ' I ' is the real self, 
and looks back at ' i } as something which it has out- 
grown. It is the world of ideas that now comes in and 

18 



254 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

takes possession of the self; and the inner appreciation 
of their worth to consciousness constitutes spiritual 
insight. Expressed in physiological terms, the adoles- 
cent development consists in the commencement of the 
functioning of the higher intellectual centres in the 
brain. Instead of a self of sense, *i' as it existed in 
childhood, we have now a world of ideas and spiritual 
perceptions, ' I ' with which the personality is identified. 

The test during the present chapter, if our point of 
view is the true one, will constantly be as to whether 
or not it explains the facts ; if they fall in harmoniously 
and without straining, as the natural expression of this 
central condition, then we shall keep it as a true ex- 
planation. It will be readily observed that this point 
of view is another way of expressing that which we 
found to underlie the phenomenon of conversion. A 
transformation of character consists in the sudden func- 
tioning of the higher brain areas, so that ' I ' becomes 
the real personality as distinguished from c i ' ; the old 
life is blotted out or swallowed up in the new. 

In the spontaneous awakenings among the persons 
who have never experienced conversion, but belong to 
the group we are now studying, we are able to detect 
exactly the same type of experience, although it is 
generally not so far-reaching and momentous in its 
significance. For the picture of this, we need only refer 
to the accounts of spontaneous awakenings given in 
Chapter XV. Some of the experiences are so pointed, 
however, in the direction of our present discussion, that 
we should note a typical instance. One person, a 
minister, who has never professed conversion, writes : 
' With me, coming to myself came through suddenly 
seeing my whole figure reflected in the mirror in a shop 
window, when I was about 16 years old. The impres- 
sion was tremendous. The thought came to me, " I am 
I, I have a life of my own to live." For some time after, 
the sense of personal responsibility for life and conduct 
weighed so heavily on my boyish mind that I identified 
myself with the church of Christ.' The essential dis- 



ADOLESCENCE -BIRTH OF A LARGER SELF 2$ 



00 



tinction between this instance and one of sudden con- 
version is that the new revelation, although it is 
extremely vital, is not sufficient to constitute a new self, 
but is interpreted as a deepening and intensification of 
the old personality. 

A common tendency observable in the records of 
the respondents, especially in those of younger persons 
who are still in the adolescent stage — a tendency which 
seems to show what is going on beneath the surface — is 
the sense of estrangement. It is a very frequent experi- 
ence for persons to feel themselves shut off from others ; 
to think their individual revelations peculiar to them- 
selves; to look upon customs and conventions as 
external to their own experiences ; to feel that they 
have a newer and greater revelation than other people 
have. One young man writes : * I have a striking and 
peculiar experience, and one you don't see often ' ; but 
an outsider, on reading his record in connection with 
many others, is able to find in it nothing either striking 
or unusual. When 22 years of age Kingsley wrote to 
his mother: 'I am not like common men; I am neither 
cleverer nor wiser nor better than the multitude, but 
utterly different from them in heart and mind/ A girl 
writes : ' I am different from other people ; I have never 
been a blind follower in thought or deed/ A woman of 
middle age says in regard to her girlhood experience: 
'When 18 I joined the church; in my earnestness I 
found myself almost alone/ In these instances there is 
a consciousness of the fresh life within, and everything 
is judged in terms of it ; it becomes the centre to which 
all else is referred, hence the sense of aloofness and 
estrangement from other people. 

This often increases to the extent of leading the 
person to look with scorn on conventional religion, and 
to regard it as inferior to his own. M. ' Forms seemed 
mere show and a fetter to individuality (15 to 23)/ 
M. 'I have not turned against Christianity (25), but 
have outgrown it. I am glad it exists for a certain 
class of people who can be reached by it/ M., 26. 



256 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

* When I go to church I am repelled by the bigotry 
of what falsely calls itself the only religion.' M. ' I 
wouldn't go to Sunday school (14 to 19), because they 
wanted me to believe things I knew were not so.' M. 
1 1 did not like traditional theology ; I felt there was 
something better.' F. * I thought Christians slow, stiff 
and conceited.' F. ' I am satisfied I feel more serene 
in church than most Christians.' F. ' I felt the form of 
joining church artificial (13 to 15). I could not talk to 
mother because she could not understand me.' F., 17. 
1 Almost every minister has disgusted me. No one has 
talked a religion that satisfied me, so I have my own.' 
Many of the subjects show the reform and missionary 
spirit while in this condition, and an earnest desire to 
bring the rest of the world up to their own point of 
view. In fact, the missionary spirit, which, as Dr 
Lancaster found in his study of adolescence, is a com- 
mon feature of youth, seems to gain its impetus in part 
from the inability to objectify the new insight and to 
harmonise it with the point of view of other people. 
The apparent bigotry on the part of one who is newly 
awakened is the result, doubtless, of regarding other 
people as being at the same time of development as is 
represented by the old self that has been abandoned. 
The new life which bursts forth, the new energy which 
surges up towards the higher brain areas, is manifested 
in the heightened activity and increased enthusiasm 
which are so frequent in youth. 

Most of the adolescence phenomena centre in the 
disparity which exists between ' i ' and * I ' in Figure 14 — 
that is, between the old self and its new possibilities. 
Youth is the time of the awakening of ideals, a time when 
there is an intimation of a larger life ahead, a fuller life 
still on the outside. One person says, ' I scarcely dared 
to think. I was living far below my ideals.' Another, ' I 
made many good resolutions, which would last only a few 
days.' Still another, * I had the strongest desire for a 
better life ; I would try, and then sink back into the 
same old attitude. I was not satisfied with myself, and 



ADOLESCENCE— BIRTH OF A LARGER SELF 257 

had the greatest regret that I was not better/ These 
are typical of a very large number ; to quote more 
would be repetition of a type we saw in the ' sense of 
incompleteness/ which was the background of the 
storm and stress period. It is a common thing for the 
Bible, or church, or religious ceremonials, or customs 
to stand for the embodiment of the ideal which the 
person wishes to reach. M. * I fell in with wayward 
companions (13 to 15). I stopped Sunday school, and 
avoided the society of good people. I was upbraided 
by conscience ; did often wish earnestly to be better/ 
M. ' I had a period of doubt. I tried to live a strictly 
moral life, but was harassed by numerous evil, invisible 
agencies/ M. c I became painfully aware (13 et seq.) of 
the hiatus between the natural life of a boy and the sup- 
posed ideal of a Christian. I spent hours each week on 
my knees/ F. ' I felt that others had something which 
I lacked (15 to 17). I, only, of an orthodox race, had 
no honest desire for what the rest felt/ F. ' All 
through young girlhood I felt my sister's affectionate 
nature to be in contrast with my selfishness and shallow- 
ness. We were inseparable companions, but she was 
isolated because she was on a higher plane/ 

The direct result of this lack of harmony between 
the two selves is that the power of insight and apprecia- 
tion grows in advance of the power of activity. One sees 
what to do, but lacks the ability to execute it. Heightened 
activity during adolescence is rare as compared with 
the other phenomena. There is a breach between the 
motor areas in the brain and the ideational centres. 
One is thrown back helplessly, and the chasm between 
knowing and doing becomes greater instead of less. 
There are several sets of causes distinctly traceable in 
the records which tend to increase the discord between 
present attainment and the ideals which open up before 
one. 

The numerous impulses that arise during youth, if 
expressed in some positive way, are not always ex- 
pressed rightly. Like the individual variations which 



258 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

come in biological evolution, some are in the line of 
progress and persist, while others are abnormal and con- 
stitute evil. With certain natures, adolescence is a time 
of acting and acting wrongly, of running against a wall 
and suffering, of sinning and repenting, which results 
finally in remorse and lack of self-confidence. F. 
' Everything I did (shortly before 16) seemed to be 
wrong. I would make fresh resolves not to do it again/ 
F. ' I alternately sinned through weakness and morbidly 
brooded over my wicked nature.' M. ' When 16 I broke 
my standards of right. I felt remorse. I struggled 
with new ideas, did wrong, and was in despair/ This is 
evidently one element in the differentiation of ideals : the 
person acts wrongly, and in consequence is thrown back 
upon himself and realises the futility of his action. This 
gives chance for ideals to grow, but at the same time 
leaves one helpless to attain them. 

Another element which doubtless sets the ideal in 
advance of present attainment is physical incapacity to 
act. The person quoted above, who felt the hiatus be- 
tween the natural life of a boy and the supposed ideal 
of a Christian, says further : ' I was growing fast, and 
my physical vitality was low. Mother was alarmed at 
my perfectly hopeless condition/ M. ' I felt I was far 
behind my ideals. I fell into morbid hopelessness/ F. 
'At 12 I became serious, and it increased with years. 
When 1 6 and 17 I was very melancholy and pensive. 
I thought about the great responsibility of life. I had 
a desire to act, but was sure of my stupidity and in- 
ability. I suffered much in silence/ We have seen 
above that spontaneity on the spiritual side seems to 
culminate just before and just after the greatest incre- 
ments in physical growth. 

Another element is clearly the duplicity or multi- 
plicity of demands made on the will. Each impulse to 
act is inhibited by some other or others. The person is 
left helpless before the greatness and indistinctness of 
the revelations which come to him. M. ' I passed 
through a period of scepticism in which I questioned 



ADOLESCENCE— BIRTH OF A LARGER SELF 259 

even the fundamental morals. The experience fostered 
my natural indecision before action.' M. * From 15 to 
20 I struggled with the ideal of being wholly conse- 
crated to the will of God. Fear of being called to do 
missionary work stood in the way/ F. ' I thought I 
ought to undertake grandfather's salvation. For months 
I was in a pitiable state between fear of him and for 
him. I prayed for him, but never dared to speak to 
him.' F. ' To talk to others about their salvation I con- 
sidered the test of religion. I would write to my cousin 
and then be afraid to look him in the face/ 

We have seen that another cause of the heightened 
insight is contact with broader minds, the study of 
science and philosophy, and the like. Whatever be the 
line of approach, the disparity between insight and the 
power to act is a prominent characteristic of youth. 

The first factor in it all, certainly, is the increased 
complexity of life which comes through the germina- 
tion of new powers and the capacity for new functions. 
The immediate sequel to that has already been de- 
scribed. The next factor to be emphasised here is the 
seeing, but not doing ; feeling, but not responding by 
some adequate activity ; having an impulse in a certain 
direction, but seeing it deadened by a lack of vital 
energy, or through the paralysis of the will under 
opposing motives. Dr Lukens 1 finds a period in the 
8th and 9th grades in our schools corresponding to the 
years of about 11 to 15, when there is no improvement 
in the ability to draw, but a heightened appreciation of 
art. Unlike the period of 7 to 8,- when the child draws 
everything with little appreciation of its meaning, the 
youth has the beginning of the art instinct without the 
power to execute it. This is the same thing that we 
find in the religious sphere. Dim, indefinable, irre- 
sistible impulses press in on one. They are too large 
and hazy to find definite outlet. The person is com- 

1 Dr Herman T. Lukens, in an unpublished article, to which he has 
had the kindness to allow a reference here. The article is a continuation 
of his researches on Children's Drawings, Pedagogical Seminary, Vol. IV. 



2 6o THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

paratively helpless in the breach between theory and 
practice, between insight and the ability to act, between 
appreciation and the power of execution. 

Now, keeping in mind the fact of a budding spiritual 
personality, and the chasm between the ideal before it 
and its present imperfection, how does this fact explain 
the other phenomena of adolescence. In understanding 
the variety of experiences we have to keep before us 
two facts which have worth in the differentiation of the 
types, namely, temperamental conditions and environ- 
mental forces. 

Some persons are apparently so happily constituted, 
and have such wholesome surroundings, that the awaken- 
ing of new life comes as quietly as the growth of a plant, 
and it is impossible to mark off periods in their growth ; 
but such cases are the exception rather than the rule. 
Among those whose development is marked off by 
stages, of common occurrence are those in which the 
life-forces have not appealed to clear consciousness, those 
in which the power of self-analysis has fallen behind the 
unconscious processes of growth. In such cases the realis- 
ation of the new life comes suddenly as a great new 
revelation. There is only a slight inhibition between 
the energy latent in the lower brain areas and^ its dis- 
charge through the higher; and the overflow into the 
latter is sufficient to bring a vivid report to conscious- 
ness. If the newly-awakened brain areas are readily 
connected again with the motor areas, increased impulse 
in the direction of religious conduct and heightened 
activity is the result. Storm and stress appears to be 
the outcome of that condition in which there is not an 
easy co-ordination of the higher and lower brain areas. 
The higher areas which are lying ready to function, and 
which do function sufficiently to arouse crude ideals, do 
not work themselves into harmonious relationships with 
the rest of the nervous system. Frequently it appears 
that the different ideational centres are beginning to 
function separately, and there is friction between them 
to determine which ideals shall be the organising centres 



ADOLESCENCE— BIRTH OF A LARGER SELF 261 

of consciousness. Life is not a unity. The strain and 
friction between its contending parts leaves one in the 
helpless and wretched condition with which we have 
become familiar. One of the purest types is that of 
Tolstoi. He says, ' I could do nothing but think, think 
of the horrible condition in which I found myself. Un- 
answerable questions never ceased pressing to one dark 
spot, like lines converging to one point/ The doubt 
phenomena are of the same sort, except that they are 
less organic, and in them the battle is fought out on the 
plane of reason as distinguished from that of the 
emotions. The ideals which present themselves to clear 
consciousness are weighed and balanced against old 
customs. It depends, perhaps, on both temperament 
and the strength of surroundings, that pull one in the 
direction of the new life, or bind him to the old, which 
way the decision shall finally fall. If it is in favour of 
the new life, and the connection is not readily appreci- 
ated between this and the old, we have alienation, a 
phenomenon whose significance now appears clear. 

As the new life rises to present itself, it rarely finds 
its own spiritual perspective coincident with the con- 
ventional and traditional one. Then follow friction, 
clash, storm and stress and doubt. The individual feels 
his own worth and clings to it, as a choice becomes 
necessary between the personal and social points of 
view. A little less than half allow the scales to tip 
towards custom and begin the process of adjustment, 
as we shall see ; a little more than half rebel and hold 
their own individual point of view. How long one 
remains in this attitude is probably a matter of tempera- 
ment. A few remain there, and never recover. Others 
are partially constructive. But the greater number find 
in the relaxation and pain of doubt an occasion for 
getting their bearings, and make it the antecedent of a 
definite reconstruction. 

The extreme difficulty of bridging the chasm, and 
the length of time that the youth is left struggling to- 
ward a higher plane of life, seem to belong to the diffi- 



262 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

culty of learning new things. In the experiments of 
Dr Bryan 1 on learning the telegraphic language, he 
found that each of the subjects learned to receive 
messages rapidly during the first few weeks of practice. 
Just before the proficiency required for receiving main 
line messages was reached, there was, without exception, 
a plateau in the curve of improvement extending through 
several weeks — a long period when * the student can feel 
no improvement, and when objective tests show little or 
none.' Then follows a sudden rise in the curve. ' Sud- 
denly, within a few days, the change comes, and the 
senseless clatter becomes intelligible speech.' This 
brings fresh and well-established evidence to what we 
were trying to picture in conversion. It helps to bring 
many of the facts in that study and those in this into 
harmony. The child is born into a social organism, 
which, with or without his choice, has set certain re- 
ligious standards that he must attain if he is to take his 
place as an organic part of it. His adolescent awaken- 
ing is really a birth into appreciation of the demands 
which the social whole makes on him. The storm and 
stress and doubt periods, and the period of ' conviction l 
preceding conversion, appear to be each a time of in- 
efficient effort to apperceive and realise that which is 
the common experience of mature minds. After some 
weeks or months in the conversion cases, and some 
months or years in the gradual-growth cases, of striving, 
building and developing, the new life becomes an im- 
mediate possession and a real experience. 

Some points as to the significance of the adolescent 
disturbances seem clear from the foregoing considera- 
tions. In the first place, the apparent futility of the 
striving during youth should not be understood to have 
no value in the final attainment of a satisfactory experi- 
ence; just as it would be impossible for a telegrapher to 
cross the line representing the degree of proficiency 

1 ' Studies in the Physiology and Psychology of the Telegraphic Lan- 
guage,' by Wm. Lowe Bryan, Ph.D., and Mr Noble Harter, Psychological 
Review , January 1897. 



ADOLESCENCE— BIRTH OF A LARGER SELF 263 

required for main-line work without trying for it day 
after day, so ft is improbable that one will ever break 
through the limits that enclose the body of world wisdom 
and enjoy from the inside that which has come as the 
result of racial experience, without struggling and even 
agonising to enter into it. 

A vital consideration is whether young people should 
be allowed to undergo the stress and turmoil that so 
frequently occur, or whether they should be steered clear 
of the real or supposed difficulties. When we grasp the 
full significance of adolescence we shall see that all the 
instability and anxiety and uncertainty, and even the 
extreme pain, is one of nature's ways of producing a 
full-fledged, self-poised human being with a high degree 
of self-reliance and spiritual insight. Because the cur- 
rents of life are not running evenly and smoothly, we 
cannot safely infer that there is not growth. In fact, 
when we take into account the great frequency of doubt 
and storm and stress among supposedly normal human 
beings ; when we observe that many of the persons who 
have risen to eminence, and that many of those who 
have become the leading exponents of religious truth 
have undergone great spiritual conflicts in youth ; when 
we keep in mind the fact that this is the time for the 
awakening of that clear consciousness which is the 
distinguishing characteristic between the most highly- 
developed human being and the animal, it seems highly 
probable that the extreme experiences of adolescence, 
with all their unevenness and turmoil, are the result 
racially of the survival of the fittest, in which the fittest 
is he who wrestles in youth with the inextricable mesh 
of impulses which spring up, and often pauses in despair 
while the deeper forces of his nature are working them- 
selves into clearness and harmony. If this is true, we 
should rather welcome such experiences in young people 
than free them from all their spiritual difficulties. In 
fact, one of the extreme unkindnesses grows out of the 
indiscretion of people who try to solve for them the 
t problems ' which arise in the minds of young people. 



264 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

One's whole life must be worked into a harmony, and 
this can best be done by allowing the natural and whole- 
some impulses which are stirring in one's life to produce 
a unity after their own kind. The insight which comes 
to a human being must be his own revelation. Dr 
Lancaster found that 90 per cent, of the large number 
of young people whom he studied loved solitude ; this 
fondness of seclusion is probably one of the wholesome 
instincts that nature has implanted in human nature. 
Mohammed went to his cave to ' solve the divine mystery' ; 
Christ went to the wilderness. 

If we are generous in our interpretation of natural 
tendencies, we shall doubtless believe that the * aliena- 
tion ' phenomena, in which people so frequently condemn 
and hold themselves aloof from the customs and social 
institutions which are the embodiment of racial wisdom, 
are in accordance with nature's way of enabling a human 
being to stand out free from the rest, and work out clearly 
his or her own point of view. That which is worked 
out independently as an individual insight is often 
brought back to society as a newly-discovered treasure. 
Thus is life enriched ; it is a process of differentiation 
which ultimately increases the complexity and fineness 
of the social fabric. 

It cannot be too much emphasised, on the other 
hand, that youth is at the point of development at 
which it is beset on every side by liabilities of abnormal 
and pathological extremes. It is the point at which not 
only geniuses begin to develop, but also criminals ; not 
only persons of greatest spiritual insight, but likewise 
those of the extremest sensuality. It is at this period 
that religious difficulties most frequently develop into 
insanity. It is the point at which possibilities open up 
in every direction. If too much let alone, the crystal- 
lisation which shall set the pattern for the whole after- 
life may be some excess or fatality quite abnormal. 
The little tottering child learns best by experience, but 
may be destroyed in the process of learning. It is of 
the gravest importance to look toward the means of 



ADOLESCENCE— BIRTH OF A LARGER SELF 265 

steering clear of the developmental tendencies when they 
are liable to become too extreme. 

The cure for helplessness that comes with storm and 
stress is often found in inducing wholesome activity. 
' Faith without works is dead/ Let us call to mind the 
fact that storm and stress and doubt are experienced 
some time during youth by something like 70 per cent, 
of all the persons studied. On the other hand, height- 
ened activity, which is characterised not only by an 
interest in religious matters, but by engaging in actual 
religious work, was experienced by only about 22 per 
cent, of all the persons. This is doubtless very much 
out of proportion. Many persons have found the solu- 
tion of their difficulties by actually setting about doing 
things. F. ' I had doubts as to the value of prayer. I 
desired a certain thing very much, and prayed for it, 
simply ignoring my doubts. It wasn't answered, but I 
have not been troubled since with doubts/ M. * Passed 
through a period of doubt. My cure was activity in 
doing what good I could.' M. ' Have doubted every- 
thing but a mother's love, and the existence of my poor 
self. My doubts have somehow been resolved in the 
stress of trying to live uprightly. I could not carry 
doubts far while trying to be a good son, student, 
husband, father and citizen.' 

The proper balance during youth will doubtless be 
found in evening up the percentages quoted above by 
bridging over to a certain degree the chasm between 
insight and the power of execution — by carrying bits 
of spiritual wisdom over into action. An idea is 
strengthened if it can find expression. The multitude 
of ideas which try to break into consciousness will be 
best judged as to their fitness to persist by embodying 
them in deeds, and testing them as to whether they 
will fit into life as mainsprings of conduct. The test of 
the worth of an idea is the fact of whether or not it is fit 
to live by. When put into execution, ideas are brought 
out into clearness, and the extreme confusion that is 
behind storm and stress is relieved. 



266 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

In the complex of sensations which underlie the 
development of self-consciousness from childhood up, 
there are doubtless none which have so great worth as 
the muscular sensations, not even excluding visual 
imagery, in terms of which so much of our knowledge is 
symbolised. Now, although development of the new 
spiritual selfhood is largely in the sphere of ideas, we 
shall never reach the point when these will not have to 
be embodied in sensuous symbols ; and the ideas at the 
highest point of development will be more in terms of 
muscular activity than in any other sense. We ap- 
preciate what we have done or are able to do. The one 
who enjoys a game most is the person who has actually 
engaged in the sport, and who plays the game over 
again as a spectator. A vocalist listening to a concert 
by another vocalist finds the muscles of the larynx 
fatigued after leaving the concert hall, and, in conse- 
quence of the muscular response, has really lived into 
the concert more vitally than one who has not experi- 
enced such a motor effort. It is deeds that make life 
real. It is actions that help most of all to unravel the 
inextricable skein of impulses. It is actually setting 
about doing things which drives the blood through the 
nervous system, and helps it to carry out its normal 
activities. ' If any man shall do his will he shall know 
of the doctrine.' 

But now we are liable to go too far in this interpre- 
tation. We must preserve the balance. One cannot 
lay it down as a general rule that the wise treatment of 
the youth is to induce activity. Our records show 
that often one of the surest means to precipitate 
the difficulty is to act when there is not sufficient 
wisdom and insight behind it to insure that the 
action be wisely directed. One person, who had been 
harassed with fears for some time, says further : ' I 
joined the church when 15, and felt better. I con- 
fessed myself a Christian, but I began to awaken to 
the fact that I was not a Christian. For three or four 
years I sought salvation ; I felt helpless and convicted 



ADOLESCENCE— BIRTH OF A LARGER SELF 267 

of sin. While talking with the pastor one day the 
whole matter cleared up. It was the simple acceptance 
of Christ/ Two or three more instances will emphasise 
the point. M. ' I lost sympathy with the doctrines of 
the church. Afterwards I tried to come back to it, but 
failed. My only satisfaction was a real reconciliation to 
the doctrines of Christ/ F. ' I joined church when 12. 
I was not so anxious as before, but had the feeling that 
I did not believe what I said I did/ F. ' I saw that my 
friends were living far better and happier lives than I ; 
and I felt I was living below my ideals. When 17 I 
joined church. Almost immediately a reaction set in, 
and I regretted the step I had taken. I felt it had not 
altered my conduct, and I doubted that to which I stood 
pledged/ 

One of the most ungainly sights, and one of the 
most hopeless, in view of religious development, is that 
of one who hastens about in a fever of excitement, sup- 
posing it to be for ' the glory of God/ or for the good of 
the world. The determination of the proper course as 
regards action or inaction during adolescence seems to 
be an individual matter, and depends on conditions too 
complex to be stated as a simple principle. This much 
seems clear, however, that there should be the proper 
mixture of conduct and insight ; that the activity 
should be constantly backed up by a higher degree of 
wisdom. 



CHAPTER XXI 

ADOLESCENCE — SUBSTITUTES FOR RELIGIOUS 
FEELING 

DURING early youth the whole nature is in a state of 
change and transformation. The readjustment seems 
to be even greater on the spiritual side than on the 
physical. During this time there is comparatively little 
display of feelings which could be termed distinctly 
religious ; there is more of ferment than contentment 
and evenness of feeling, more of doubt than faith. The 
person is filled with unrest and uncertainty and self- 
analysis ; or, on the other hand, with wilful activity and 
the disposition to take the control of the universe into 
his or her hands. We set out next to inquire what has 
taken place among the life-forces at this time. Is there 
relatively a blank, or are there other lines of interest 
and activity which persist during doubt and storm and 
stress ? 

We are learning to expect that if one's energy is not 
expending itself in one direction, it is probably active in 
another. In physical development the different organs 
do not grow harmoniously, but have their particular 
nascent periods of development. The energy which 
makes for growth is focused now in one and now in 
another. Between the growth on the physical side and 
on the spiritual we have repeatedly noticed in this study 
evidences of a compensation that is going on ; periods 
of slow spiritual advance are frequently coincident with 
those of very rapid development of some other kind. 
It is noticeable among professional athletes that exces- 

268 



SUBSTITUTES FOR RELIGIOUS FEELING 269 

sive training in the muscular system is apt to be accom- 
panied by lack of proficiency in mental acumen. In 
regard to the use of the psychic functions, specialisation 
in one given direction limits one in others. A man is 
not liable to be at the same time a poet and a scientist, 
and to succeed in both. Mr Curtis, 1 in a study of the 
supply and expenditure of nervous energy, has made it 
appear highly plausible that the amount of nervous 
energy available for use at any given time is fairly con- 
stant in the same individual. If it is used up in one 
way there is none left for other activities. The opposite 
of this principle is equally true, that if one finds a 
deficiency at any given period, unless there is a lesion 
or some definite abnormality in growth, one may expect 
to find an increase of activity in some other part of 
the system. This is as true in regard to spiritual 
development as in the distinctly physiological character- 
istics. One cannot serve God and mammon. Neither 
can one be at the same time a skilled theologian 
and an exhorter. If the forces in one's nature which 
make for richness are specialised in any one way, they 
determine the peculiarity and aptitude of the person. 
If one's stock of energy which is normally expended in 
the cultivation of spiritual things is drafted off for some 
other purpose, the result is directly noticeable. This 
compensating tendency is well illustrated in the follow- 
ing instance. One of the respondents writes : * The 
evenness of growth has been disturbed twice, during two 
periods of pregnancy, when my health was very poor. 
Being deprived of church work, and unable to do any 
active Christian work, it was hard to keep from getting 
despondent. During these periods I felt I never would 
get back in the same relations that I had had. I think 
it was simply my health and inactivity, as I feel as much 
interest now as before these periods.' 

We are able to see clearly that there are elements 
which continue and are indeed often heightened during 
storm and stress and doubt. The lines of interest which 

1 Pedagogical Seminary, Vol. VI., p. 64. 

19 



2 7 o THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

come to the front, or which persist when everything else 
seems to be torn away, are the moral, intellectual, and 
aesthetical instincts. 

(a) The ethical instinct usually persists or is heightened 
during adolescence. Often it is the only thing which 
remains firm in the midst of chaos. One woman writes : 
1 I had a lack of religious feeling at that time, but prided 
myself on my humility. I determined to devote my 
life to God's service. I went into Christian work, but it 
seemed more practical than spiritual/ The practicality 
of the motive behind the activity and its lack of 
spirituality are a good index of the ethical impulse that 
gave it sanction. That the instinct is a moral one 
which impels to action is strongly evidenced in the fact 
that a morbid conscience was the central thing in storm 
and stress. There is often a worrying over trifles, a 
tendency to magnify little omissions or little slips in con- 
duct into the proportion of great sins. Religious feelings 
have vanished, but conscience is left in full possession 
of the field, and it exercises its power with unchecked 
sway. One woman says : ' Between the years of 10 and 
19 if I overstepped in one thing I felt awfully wicked. 
One night I had a dream of Christ beckoning me to 
follow Him ; I took it to mean I was not doing as I 
should, and was even stricter after that.' Some other 
typical instances are the following : M. ' While changing 
my beliefs, religion was more a matter of conduct. I 
went through a rational stage at 17 or 18, when the 
sense of duty only was left/ M. ' I passed out from my 
old views and gradually I dropped religious considera- 
tions altogether between 22 and 26. I led an active life. 
My religious nature was entirely dormant, but there 
was an increase of moral and intellectual soundness/ 
M. 'Between the years of 17 and 20 I came to regard 
myself as an agnostic. I prided myself on being more 
moral than those about me who professed religion/ 
M. 'I was in spiritual agony; my spirit was smitten 
with such a darkness that only one of all the early 
feiths remained, // must be right to do right! There 



SUBSTITUTES FOR RELIGIOUS FEELING 271 

are a few instances in which the moral nature is 
shattered and falls with the rest. F. c From 14 to 19 
I could not bear to be talked to about religion. Heaven 
seemed further off than ever. I was more careless 
about doing right/ M. ' Began to doubt theological 
beliefs. Went to college. Overthrew ideals of child- 
hood (18-19). Had a period of moral license/ M. 
1 Had a period of scepticism. Questioned everything. 
It lowered my ideals unconsciously, or doubled them 
with lower ones, while the higher ones persisted/ The 
cases are relatively rare in which the moral instinct 
declines. 

(J?) The intellectual interest is often the all-absorbing 
one. This fact has already been anticipated in the con- 
sideration of the prominence of doubt. Not only is the 
rational power a vigorous tool for the criticism of religious 
ideals, but frequently its use becomes an end in itself, 
and the interest in it seems to approach a kind of 
aesthetic of logic. F. 'When 15, intellectual question- 
ings arose. I became intensely imbued with Sweden- 
borgianism. It was the cold philosophy of his teaching 
that satisfied my mental needs/ F. 'During the year 
(19) I read books inclined to increase doubt. Would 
go out under the stars to think and reason. Contrasted 
ministers of the Gospel with scientists, and thought the 
latter more likely to find truth. At present (23) have 
no settled religious belief. I accept no belief I cannot 
understand/ F. ' I said, as to something above me, I 
will never believe one inch beyond what my coldest 
thinking tells me is most probable/ M. ' For a year 
or more after 14 the whole matter of religion seemed 
eclipsed by the desire for intellectual growth/ M. ' Have 
never been able to supplement my most general con- 
clusions by the mysterious strength of simple faith 
Have a keen desire (31) to have a satisfactory rational 
basis for would-be beliefs/ M. (15-19). 'Cared more 
about my doubts than the solution of them/ The 
fascination that centres around the use of intellectual 
powers furnishes a good indication of the line of de- 



272 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

velopment which is going on during youth. Its incentive 
is the pleasure that comes from the exercise of a newly- 
acquired function. Dr Burnham observes in his study 
of adolescence that many philosophers have begun their 
systems during adolescent doubt. 1 - 

(c) The (Esthetic interest sometimes either continues 
or is heightened during doubt and storm and stress. 
F. ' From 24 to 29 I did not believe in religion at all. 
I wept over the pathetic in literature; had strong 
emotions on hearing " The Messiah " or Easter music 
at some great church/ F. ' I had no religious training. 
Later I lost the calm and peace of childhood ; 15 to 22 
had despair at the idea of going out into nothingness. 
I did not believe in God, immortality or prayer. During 
this time I had a vague imagination of something 
beautiful and beneficent in nature. My enjoyment was 
largely sensuous ; flowers, perfumes, music, deep, soft 
colours, awakened more emotion than any thought of 
the holiness of God.' F. * All that religion means to me 
(17) is kindness and goodness. In music, soulful pieces 
move me strongly. Chopin's " Funeral March " seems 
to grow into me. In nature, our glorious sunsets, the 
ocean in its vastness, and all scenery on a grand scale, 
make me believe there must be some divine power/ 
M. * I came to stand quite outside religion generally 
(15 to 22). Natural phenomena were everything to me 
— health, inspiration and consolation/ M. * During my 
doubt period (before and after 20), the love of nature 
constituted all my happiness. The vast and sublime 
affected me almost to madness/ 

A rough quantitative estimate of these factors is 
given in Table XXIII. The number of cases in which 
doubt or storm and stress was present is the basis of 
the percentages. The numbers show the percentage of 
those in which the supplementary elements in question 
were clearly present. The absolute value of the num- 
bers is heightened here because most of such statements 
as are quoted above did not come from a direct question, 

1 Pedagogical Seminary, Vol. I., p. 182. 



SUBSTITUTES FOR RELIGIOUS FEELING 273 



but were given voluntarily in the general record of ex- 
periences. 





Females 






Males. 




Per Cent, of C 


ases. 


PerC 


ent. of Cases. 






'd 






T3 






T3 






-a 






















3 


u 




d 


ij 






.5 




<L> 


.5 


,bf) 






O 

U 


w ■ 


W 



U 


w 


w 


Ethical Instinct . 


l8 


15 


33 


37 


6 


43 


Intellectual Interest 


6 


15 


21 


24 


8 


32 


Esthetic Interest 


7 


8 


15 


14 


2 


16 


Any one of the above without 














duplicating 








55 








63 



Table XXIII. — Showing the actual prominence of certain elements which 
take the place of religious feeling during doubt and storm a7id stress. 



minence, 



The ethical factor stands out in the greatest pro- 
persisting during doubt and storm and stress 
in at least 33 per cent, of the women and 43 per cent, 
of the men. The intellectual element is less fre- 
quently mentioned, but arises into distinct importance. 
It is remarkable that considerably more than half the 
respondents mention some one of the three elements as 
constituting part of the bone and sinew of life during 
adolescent struggle. 

The question arises, What is the significance of the 
act that these three lines of development come out so 
pronouncedly during adolescence, when the distinctly 
religious feelings are relatively absent? It means either 
that these are the most fundamental factors in the re- 
ligious life — so central and vital that when all the rest 
disappears they remain as the skeleton and framework of 
the religious life ; or, on the other hand, that they are 
factors somewhat distinct from those which make up 
religion, and have now begun to rise into prominence, 
while the religious instincts are held for the time in 



274 The psychology of religion 

abeyance. In an earlier interpretation of these facts, 
the first alternative was chosen, and in view of the fact 
that the moral impulses rose into greater prominence 
than any other element, it was said that the ' ethical 
instinct seems to be the great tap-root from which the 
religious nature is nourished/ 1 It is to be noticed that 
in childhood religion the moral impulse shows itself very 
early. Also in the beginning of adolescence the first 
things to appear when the individual life dawns are those 
things which centre about conscience. And now we 
have seen that the last thing to go when one is torn by 
doubt and perplexity is the moral nature. This seems 
to furnish strong reason for the former interpretation. 
But one is met by these considerations: — The moral 
nature is often shattered during adolescence. During 
adolescent insanity, as Clouston points out, the moral 
instincts are the first to disappear. Pleasure in the 
exercise of the intellectual nature comes to the 
front, and reason can hardly be regarded as one of 
the central roots of religion. // seems a fair inter- 
pretation to say that these three lines of development, in 
the direction of morals and reason and (Esthetics, are 
relatively late* products in racial growth, ' and in adol- 
escence have just . begun vitally to function. The 
moral nature, as we saw in the chapter on childhood 
religion, is already present in early years ; but it 
exists in germ rather than as a vital element in con- 
sciousness. In childhood, we are coming to see, all 
the possibilities of later development exist and show 
themselves already in little ways. Reason, for 
example, has its nascent period during youth ; but it 
rises to assert itself in the questioning age of early 
childhood. The mind at 3 or 4 years of age is 
bristling with scrappy bits of reason ; nevertheless, they 
have not the same value to consciousness as the reason 
which shows itself later. The elements of morals 
and reason both assert their presence in these early 

1 ' Religious Growth/ American Journal of Psychology, Vol. IX., 
p. 101. 



SUBSTITUTES FOR RELIGIOUS FEELING 27 



is 



years ; but in adolescence the youth knows them in a 
living way as part of himself. He grasps their meaning 
with the absolute certainty of possession ; they blossom 
out in his consciousness as a part of himself; he feels that 
it is ' I ' who have a conscience, and ' I ' who reason. 
These are elements which are closely bound up with 
religion, and will later be taken up into it as some of its 
most immediate constituents. The prominence of the 
ethical instinct leads us to believe that from this time, 
when it has its real birth, it will be one of the central 
factors in fully developed religion. An experienced 
teacher of young people reports that if she asks her 
pupils to select those they like best among a number 
of poems — some representing beauty of form and 
imagery, others tending to awaken some vast con- 
ception, and still others which have a strong moral 
undertone — they almost invariably choose the last. 
They are attracted first by the moral aspect of 
poetry. 

These three lines of development, then, are those 
toward which racial growth has tended ; they are the 
latest fruits of evolution, the culmination of the lines of 
racial development. We are in a position now to see 
why the moral nature falls first in mental disease, 
why it vanishes like a mist when mania sets in. It 
is probably because the moral instinct is so highly 
organised and so finely poised. It is for the same 
reason that the intellectual life, which is one of the 
highest products of developing consciousness, is most 
susceptible to insanity in this very period, when it 
should come forward and develop into the highest per- 
fection. During their period of greatest instability, both 
elements are most susceptible to hopeless disintegration. 
In view of this fact we see why during adolescence the 
moral nature should sometimes be weakened during 
storm and stress and doubt, although it is usually 
brought out into greater clearness. It appears to be in 
some instances the result of failure to attain the possi- 
bilities before one when this developmental crisis is 



276 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

reached. There are many instances likewise on the in- 
tellectual side in which very great precocity in childhood 
is followed by failure to realise the possibilities of the 
development of rational nature in adolescence. The 
weakness of the moral nature may be the result of ex- 
cessive development and be closely allied to the usual 
forms of adolescent mania. 

During these crises in adolescence, life is in a certain 
sense laid bare so that one can look into it and see the 
elements which compose it and their interplay upon 
each other. In these three factors we have been con- 
sidering one sees avenues along which it is possible to 
approach the lives of young people when religious faith 
is low. They represent demands which must be met in 
the educational treatment of the youth, and which 
should be appealed to in order to help him safely 
through a most critical and crucial period. 



CHAPTER XXII 

ADULT LIFE — THE PERIOD OF RECONSTRUCTION 

A TURNING-POINT in development almost as distinct 
in character as that at the beginning of adolescence is 
one a few years later which marks its close. It consists 
in a reorganisation, readjustment and reconstruction of 
religious experience. Adolescence is a period of turmoil, 
of spiritual unrest, of instability, and often of negation. 
The close of adolescence is characterised as the be- 
ginning of religion as seen from within. The person 
has worked out a standpoint of his own, he interprets 
life for himself; he has gained a positive faith, although 
it does not of necessity agree with the conventional 
types. 

This reconstruction consists either in working out 
one's belief and faith independently of that of other 
people, accepting one's own point of view and beginning 
to live it and to be happy in it. or in coming back to 
the old forms and dogmas of childhood and putting new 
life into them. It is more frequently a mixture of both 
of these tendencies. Rarely does a person remain un- 
mindful after the period of reconstruction of the usual 
theological tenets and ecclesiastical customs ; and, on 
the other hand, we have no instances of those who drop 
back into the childhood method through sheer ex- 
haustion from the struggles of youth— none, in fact, of 
whom it would be fair to say that they have simply put 
the new wine into old bottles. The person has acquired 
a spiritual grasp, a new insight, and that becomes the 
basis for apperceiving the essential elements in old 

?77 



278 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

doctrines, generally with keen discrimination between 
their essential and non-essential aspects. 

The nature of the process will be best understood by 
quoting a few typical instances. The following represent 
those who construct a faith largely outside and inde- 
pendent of the commonly accepted forms: F. ' I cannot 
come back to my old beliefs ; but I believe that I worship 
(20) as truly as God desires/ F. ' I am influenced in my 
own conduct by far higher considerations and nobler 
ideas of duty (26) than I ever was while I held evan- 
gelical beliefs/ M. * The struggle is over (21), but my 
beliefs do not now agree with all the popular ones/ 

Below are various instances of the way in which one 
comes to see the truth involved in former beliefs held 
when religion was looked upon as something external, 
but which have been worked over as a part of one's 
inner life. M., 30. ' The dark period has nearly passed 
for me. My beliefs are largely what they formerly 
were, and the reconstruction was perhaps not entirely 
independent of the influence of the old beliefs ; but 
it does not rest on them as a foundation/ M. * I 
have had a slow process of construction and extreme 
simplification of belief. My few religious tenets seem 
perfectly in harmony with natural law and rational 
ideas. I have not accepted again anything once com- 
pletely discarded. I have simple beliefs, yet strong on 
a few fundamental points/ M., 30. ' I find, what has 
proved itself more and more true all the time, that the 
positive beliefs that I have gradually worked out in the 
school of experience in freedom of thought are one 
in essence with the religious beliefs of my childhood, that 
had been taught in the first place in terms so simple that 
they seemed to have nothing profound about them at all/ 
M., 30. * I have come back to a firm belief in God as 
revealed by the Holy Spirit in Jesus Christ, but I can- 
not return to the traditional beliefs concerning inspira- 
tion, atonement, the person of Christ, election, etc/ 
F., 30. * The terms God, freedom, love and immortality 
have more meaning to me now than ever before, not so 



ADULT LIFE— PERIOD OF RECONSTRUCTION 279 

theoretical as a few years ago, but nearer and more real 5 
(from 24 to 29 she was ' without a religion '). F., 54. 
' I have often thought that if I could come to the Bible 
as to other books it would be more helpful. The last 
year or two it has been so ; the illumination which 
evolution has thrown on some passages will eventually 
make it a new book for me.' F. ' From 17 to 24 I was 
constantly awakening to larger meanings of truths here- 
tofore supposed narrow and personal.' M., 30. ' I have 
returned to something like the faith of youth, but it is 
much more spiritualised and liberal in its views/ M. 
* Gradually (16 to 20) I lost all my religion but the 
sense of duty. Then gradually I felt that I hadn't lost 
much — it all came back to me transfigured. Since the 
readjustment my religious feelings have tended to 
become stronger, and I have put new meanings into 
old forms/ 

The age at which the reconstruction occurs is generally 
between 20 and 30 ; of those before and after those ages 
there are — of females, one each at 18, 33 and 37, and of 
males, one each at 50 and 55. The age was not always 
given ; but it was evident that the reconstruction gener- 
ally fell somewhere between the years specified. The 
years of greatest frequency for both men and women were 
24 and 25. The average age, omitting scattered ones 
which come very late, is 24 for women and 24.5 years 
for men. 

There is great unanimity in all of the cases quoted 
above, and these are fairly representative of the entire 
class. To what extent, let us inquire, is this a char- 
acteristic experience. Omitting girls between 16 and 
20, who are not to be supposed to have yet completed 
the reconstruction, or even to have had a fair chance at 
doubt and storm and stress, we find 42 per cent, of the 
females and 39 per cent, of the males who have had 
experiences similar to those quoted. Allowing for im- 
perfect records and for difficulty of self-analysis, it is 
evident that they are very common. 

But we should look at the matter from another 



25o 



THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 



standpoint. It is evident that in arriving at a fair 
estimate of the tendency toward reconstruction one 
should include only such as have at some time in their 
growth found themselves partially outside of religion. 
That is, we should exclude those whose growth has 
been so gradual as not to be marked off by definite 
stages. Looking through the records we find that 41 
per cent, of the women and 38 per cent, of the men 
belong to this latter class. If we exclude from these 
the 16 per cent, of the women who are between the 
ages of 16 and 20, we have for both sexes about one- 
third whose development has been gradual. That is, 
if these are typical subjects, we may say that about 
two-thirds of both sexes tend at some time in their 
growth either to rebel against conventional religion or 
to find it alien to their personal interests. Of this 
number there are only 13 per cent, of women and 4 
per cent, of men who are still in a negative attitude. 
Besides this there are 1 1 per cent, of the women 
and 18 per cent, of the men who profess not to be 
satisfied with their present point of view, but who 
are trying to work on to a more satisfactory experience, 
and who show withal a definite tendency to make their 
beliefs harmonise with their earlier ones or with those 
of other people. Those whose reconstruction is not 
complete show in some respects in a more definite 
way than the others the natural trend of growth. In 
them one sees life in the process of formation-; they are 
like the nebulous systems which show how worlds are 
made. We may safely lay it down as a law of growth 
that it is almost a universal tendency for the perplexity \ 
uncertainty and negation of adolescence to be followed by a 
period of reconstruction, in which religious truth is apper- 
ceived and takes shape as an immediate individual pos- 
session. There is further evidence that there is a critical 
period at the end of adolescence, usually in the twenties, 
found in the records of those whose Growth has been 
even during adolescence. Many of these had a definite 
awakening or a period of more rapid and intense de- 



ADULT LIFE— PERIOD OF RECONSTRUCTION 281 

velopment at this time sufficient to mark it off as a 
turning point. The following quotations will illustrate. 

F. 'When 20 I heard impersonate David Garrick. 

I experienced a swelling and overflowing of life, and joy 
so keen it was part pain. That high plane of insight 
has never been lost.' F. c When 23 I had a struggle 
with selfishness and came out victorious/ M. ' When 
21 I became more serious. Growth from that time was 
less influenced by environment. , M. 'At that time (25) 
came new insight into the meaning of life/ Putting 
experiences of this kind with those of reconstruction of 
faith already noticed, it swells the per cent, to 53 for 
each sex of those who have a pretty distinct turning- 
point somewhere in the 20's. The average age given 
above is changed by only a little with the addition of these 
instances. In order to see if this was a separate period 
or only a continuation of the ' spontaneous awakenings/ 
the numbers of both occurring at the different years 
were plotted together. They leave almost a blank at 
19 and 20, and rise again to the greatest frequency at 
25. The break between the phenomena which mark 
the beginning of adolescence and those which seem to 
determine its close seem to set the latter off as belong- 
ing to a different period. The experiences are also of 
quite a different character, as seen in the quotations 
already given. The period of reconstruction which 
marks the end of adolescence is a time when the 
ragged ends of experience are pulled together into 
a unity, when that which has been objective has 
now become a subjective possession, when that which 
has been seen from the outside is now lived from 
within. 

The fact that this is the natural drift of religious 
growth is brought out in a new way in Table XXIV., 
in which the age-groups are kept separate. It is the 
result of an attempt to classify all the cases, in order to 
bring out whether older persons are more liable to 
have passed through a period of reconstruction than 
the younger ones. 



THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 





Age. 






16-19 

Per 

Cent, of 

Cases. 


20-23 
(24) 

Per Cent, 
of Cases. 


24-29 
(25) 

Per Cent, 
of Cases 


30-39 

Per Cent. 

of Cases. 


40 and 

over. 

Per Cent. 

of Cases. 


Sum. 

Per Cent. 

of Cases. 


I. Faith Recon- 
structed after 
Doubt and Ne- 


F 
1-7 


F. M. 
2.5 


F. M. 
4-1 


F. M. 
10.8 


F. M. 
9.2 


F. M. 

28.3 


gation 




2.7 


10.7 


12. 


13.3 


38.7 


2. In Process of 
Reconstruction 


3-3 


3-3 
12. 


2-5 

4. 


.8 
i-3 


.8 

1.3 


10.8 
18.6 


3. Still Negative . 


10.8 


0. 

i-3 


.8 

2-7 


.8 
0. 


O. 

.O 


12.5 
4- 


4. Gradual Growth, 
without Definite 
Reconstruction . 


16. 


9- 

12. 


7. 

6.7 


3- 

9-3 


6.7 

IO.7 


41.7 
33.7 


Unclassified . 


6. 


\ 


.8 


0. 


0. 


6.S 



Table XXIV. — Showing some facts in regard to the trend of religions 
experience. 



The cases fall into four groups : first, those who had 
got more or less completely outside of religious interests 
through doubt and reaction, and had finally constructed 
a belief and faith satisfactory to themselves ; secondly, 
those who had gained some solid footing and were still 
making stringent efforts to believe; thirdly, those who 
were still negative and reactionary ; lastly, those who 
had never felt themselves removed from and antagon- 
istic to religious interests, even during doubt and storm 
and stress. The separation into these groups was of 
course somewhat arbitrary. That it was not wholly so 
was shown in the fact that, as in other points of 
difficult judgment, my wife and I made them inde- 
pendently, and found very few doubtful cases. These 
last are placed in the unclassified list in the table. The 



ADULT LIFE— PERIOD OF RECONSTRUCTION 283 

value of the table is largely in showing the distribution 
of the different groups among the various years. It is 
made out entirely in percentages of the whole number 
of cases. As we saw in Table XVI 1 1., the number of 
cases which fall in the various year-divisions is about 
the same, with the exception of women between 16 
and 19 inclusive ; so the percentages as given represent 
fairly, with the exception of the first column, the relative 
values for the different vertical columns, i.e., for the 
different year-groups. 

Looking now at the year-groups, we see from class 
one that the numbers increase with years of those who 
have had a period of definite reconstruction. In con- 
trast with that, the number of those who are still re- 
actionary, or are still in the process of reconstruction, 
decreases with age. That is, it appears that very few 
who have stood outside of religious interest at any time 
in their growth have not readjusted their faith by, say, 
the age of 30. That class four — those whose growth is 
distinctly gradual — should be greater in earlier years, 
can hardly mean other than that they would have been 
good subjects for doubt and reaction later. The naive 
and simple way in which most of the girls from 16 to 
20 gave their experiences, and described them in the 
phraseology of the prayer-book or catechism, is added 
evidence. If the table is accurate, and the facts on 
which it is based are typical, we may say that the 
common tre?id of religious gi'owth is from childhood faith, 
through doubt, reaction and estrangement, into a positive 
hold on religion, through an individual reconstruction 
of belief and faith. 

It was a surprise to find the period of reconstruction 
so clearly marked, and it raises a question somewhat 
difficult of interpretation. The meaning of it from the 
psychological standpoint seems clear enough, but to 
grasp the biological significance of it, to find the reason 
why the period should be so clearly marked and come out 
at about the time it does, is not so easy. It may be 
wide of the mark, but it seems possible that this turning- 



284 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

point may be a cumulation from racial experience and 
represent the time when the individual must leave his 
tutelage, and take his place as a positive unity in society, 
as husband, father or citizen. Just as childhood is 
the time when one should drink in the best of that 
which human beings have worked out and stored up in 
habits and customs, and as in youth these must 
be taken up and criticised and questioned preparatory 
to apperceiving them, so maturity is the period when 
one must carry back into life and utilise that which has 
been learned. There are some bits of evidence in the 
records that seem to show that such an interpretation is 
the fair one. One woman writes: 'From 18 to 24 my 
religious experience fluctuated because of pleasure-seek- 
ing and worldliness, which troubled my conscience. But 
after this I became more settled by entering on the 
duties incumbent on a wife and mother, and my religious 
life was deepened as my responsibility increased.' 

Psychologically, this period marks off the end of the 
adolescent ferment. The unsettled and stilted quality 
of both body and mind is outgrown, and new insight is 
worked over into habit and becomes ingrained as a part 
of the new personality ; the bigotry and wilfulness of 
adolescence become toned down ; the unrest and hope- 
less striving become realised. If the experiments in 
learning telegraphy, referred to above, hint at a funda- 
mental law of growth involved in religious experience, 
this culmination of adolescence is the time when the 
curve of proficiency suddenly rises and crosses the line 
which represents the standard of the religious life of the 
social whole. 

A most instructive insight into the relationship be- 
tween adolescence and maturity is reflected in the means 
by which the transition is made from the one to the other. 
We shall take up in turn some of the ways of approach 
to the positive religious life. At no point of develop- 
ment is the transition more clearly marked. 

A very common way of escape from storm and stress 
and doubt is through some sort of activity. One woman 



ADULT LIFE— PERIOD OF RECONSTRUCTION 285 

writes: 'I had severe struggles through selfishness and 
jealousy. Family troubles came upon me in full force, 
so that I could bear my sorrow only through serving 
Christ and working for Him. I taught a class in Sunday 
school and sang in the choir ; I set up ideals and made 
great effort to live up to them. My real change in 
character began at this time/ It is through setting 
about to do things that the pent-up forces in one's 
nature are relieved. The difficulty during adolescence 
is that the tendency toward one sort of motor discharge 
is inhibited by some other equally strong tendency 
which offsets it. As one grows towards maturity, and 
the impulses to activity increase in number, the soul, 
whose highest joy is in self-expression, becomes self- 
imprisoned. The life is an aching centre of possibilities. 
One comes to feel that the only means of escape is to 
do something, whether or not the specific thing to be 
done is at all recognised. The way out is that pictur- 
esquely described in Carlyle's chapter on the ' Everlast- 
ing Yea': * Produce ! produce! Were it but the piti- 
fulest infinitesimal fraction of a product, produce it in 
God's name. 'Tis the utmost thou hast in thee ; out 
with it then. Up ! up ! " Whatsoever thy hand findeth 
to do, do it with thy whole might." " Work while it is 
called to-day, for the night cometh wherein no man can 
work.'" 

It more frequently happens that the activity is of a 
special than of a general sort, and comes from following 
up some one line of insight which separates itself out 
from the mesh of possibilities. We saw in the last 
chapter that there are three elements which persist 
during adolescence in the absence of the distinctly reli- 
gious feelings, namely, the ethical interest, the intel- 
lectual and the aesthetic. It is interesting to note that 
each of these is a great highway along which persons 
pass out from adolescence into mature life. 

The way out of adolescence is perhaps most fre- 
quently found by following up some thread of intellectual 
insight. F. ' I knew that an acorn would not come up 



286 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

a beanstalk, and thought that to plant in that belief is 
as much religion as anything. I came to believe that 
" somehow good will be the final goal of ill." One 
cannot live without deep religious feelings ; they are a 
legitimate part of one's nature/ F. ' I got hold of the 
conception of law, and settled the problem of the world 
in favour of determinism. This brought repose and rest. 
I gradually ceased to pray for anything external, but 
only for spiritual perfection. My whole after life has 
been a development from this point of view. 1 M. ' Re- 
action practically ceased by my becoming convinced 
that, allowing the Bible equal credit with other sacred 
writings, it was, as a whole, true ; that the religion of 
Christ was the most potent factor in lifting humanity to 
a higher plane ; that the church was the only organised 
means of advancing religion ; and by seeing fruits of 
religion in the lives of others/ M. ' I learned to dis- 
tinguish between the lives of so-called Christians and 
that of Christ ; between imperfections due to Christianity 
and those due to human weakness. I went one day to 
a favourite grove by the river, summed up all my doubts 
and fears, and Christ was mine again/ Others found 
some organising principle in science or philosophy. The 
typical solution seems to be to sift a large truth which 
is part error and to discriminate out the vital element 
in it, as in the last one above and in this : M. 'By 18 I 
was a sceptic, by 20 an unbeliever. When 21 I came 
under the instruction of a man who taught me the differ- 
ence between essentials and non-essentials. He taught 
me that if I had the mind of Christ within me, and had 
the spiritual truth of the Bible, it made no difference 
about Jonah and the whale. He first really led me to 
Christ/ 

Another way which is just as clearly marked is that 
of following up the thread of duty. F. ' One day while 
musing despairingly, something stirred within me, and 
I asked myself, "Can I not rise once more, conquer my 
faults and live up to my own idea of right and good, 
even though there be no life after death? I may yet 



ADULT LIFE— PERIOD OF RECONSTRUCTION 287 

deserve my own respect here and now. If there be a 
God, He must approve me." I was led back straight to 
religion through the moral instincts.' F. (Severe conflict 
16 to 30.) * When 30 I heard some sermons on religion 
as character building. They led me to be the Christian 
I am now.' M. c My morals and theology both went at 
the same time. I came later to see the distinction 
between them and to have as my only code utilitarian 
ethics.' M. ' I have outgrown the church. I believe in 
a high standard of morals. Honesty, morality and 
integrity are my only watchwords, and they are my 
prayers/ 

This is one of the most clearly marked even if it is 
not one of the most frequent ways of approach to 
maturity. It is so clearly described by Mr Brooke in 
his life of Robertson that his words deserve quoting in 
this connection. ' It is an awful moment when the soul 
begins to find that the props on which it has rested are 
many of them wrong. ... I know but one way in 
which a man can come forth from this agony scatheless. 
It is by holding fast to those things which are certain 
still. In the darkest hour through which the human 
soul can pass, whatever else is doubtful this at least is 
certain ; if there be no God and no future state, even 
then it is better to be generous than selfish, better to 
be true than false, better to be brave than a coward. 
Blessed beyond all earthly blessedness is the man who, 
in the tempestuous darkness of his soul, has dared to 
hold fast to those landmarks. I appeal to the recollec- 
tion of any man who has passed through that agony 
and has sat on that rock at last with a faith and hope 
and trust no longer traditional, but his own.' 

Finding the vital element in religion from the side 
of (esthetics is the line along which one often works one's 
way. F. ' The reading of Wordsworth and Keats, and 
Kant's Critique of Practical Judgment, combined with 
lectures on Wordsworth and Keats, opened up a new 
world to me. It showed me that religion was not 
identical with any church. I felt Gcd to be the great 



288 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

artist of all the outdoor world of which I was so fond. 
The change of " the good into the beautiful " became 
the acceptance of God's law.' A good example is found 
in the deepened insight of one whose growth was 
gradual. M. - (When 22) I drew the picture of a little 
aspen tree. As I drew, the beautiful lines insisted on 
being drawn. I saw they composed themselves by finer 
laws than any known to man. At last the tree was 
there, and all I had thought about trees, nowhere. " He 
hath made everything beautiful in His time" became 
thenceforward the interpretation of the bond between 
the human mind and all visible things.' The presence 
of the aesthetic element in reconstruction is also 
hinted under the next heading. In the last three 
paragraphs we see, very naturally, that the way out 
into positive religion is along those lines which we found 
to persist during doubt and storm and stress. 

An appreciation of the strength and beauty of personal 
life is often the means by which one comes again to a 
solid footing. A woman who had passed through a 
period of despair from 19 to 33 writes : ' The chief factors 
in the change were change of work and love for a little 
child. By slow degrees came back warmth for other 
human beings. I became possessed, I have no know- 
ledge how, of a little faith.' M. ' I never felt the emotion 
of love in any form until 26. Then a little child 8 years 
old became fond of me because I told her fairy tales. 
Her words were the first expression of tender feeling I 
ever received that I did not suspect. I could understand 
God's love better after that.' F. (Doubt and storm and 
stress up to 22.) ' I heard a grandly benignant man 
preach on the joy and peace of the Christian life. I felt 
a hope that it might come to me, and began to pray 
vaguely but earnestly for faith and a hold on truth. 
Gradually a sense of the wonderful vitality of the 
personality of Jesus came to me. His life seemed to 
be in all things — in civilisation, beauty, purity, art and 
life. Slowly I felt in myself this other Life and Force 
and Divinity.' 



ADULT LIFE— PERIOD OF RECONSTRUCTION 289 

One of the most common ways of entering on posi- 
tive religious life is through surrender of self, and 
coming to live in more general or universal life. F. ' I 
experienced complete resignation and threw aside selfish 
anxiety about a future life. I got rid of the prison of 
self and took my stand in the objective universe/ F. 
1 I came to a point where to go on and live without 
divine aid was impossible. In a time of sore temptation 
help came. The simple acceptance of it changed every- 
thing. After a year or more of sore distress of mind, 
religious feeling came back again/ M. ' My struggle 
was with independence. I find it easier now since I 
have submitted completely. My growth has been from 
purely intellectual religion to acceptance of the Spirit's 
aid/ M. * Heretofore (up to 25) religion had been a 
personal matter. The final solution of my difficulty was 
in recognising the social side of morality and religion. 
That was a brand-new revelation to me/ M. 'The 
difference, after starting for a higher life, was that God 
was recognised while before He was not/ 

The correspondence between these phenomena of 
self-surrender and those described under conversion is 
readily appreciated. They doubtless have the same 
psychological foundation, although those we are now 
considering are usually more mature. The conviction 
period in these instances has been prolonged by several 
years, and when the solution of the difficulties is finally 
reached, the person sets out more unfalteringly toward 
the higher life and is not so frequently overtaken by the 
perplexities of youth as are those who were converted 
at some earlier year. The above are ways by which 
the person passes from external perception to inward 
appreciation of the worth of religion. In reading them 
through, one feels that the central thing underlying 
them all in one way or another is coming to see religion 
from within. The instances are numerous in which the 
persons themselves described the transition as being of 
this nature. This is shown in the following quotations : 
F., 29. ' I no longer think of God as a being sitting on a 



2 9 o THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

throne in space, but as a force boundless and infinite 
which pervades all nature as I pervade my own body/ 
F. ' Having passed through various periods of doubt, I 
find myself without any especial creed, and too busy to 
speculate. My faith in God has never wavered, but it 
takes rather the form of faith in myself as His child, 
and in the result of my own best effort/ F. ' I came to 
see religion as a personal matter and not limited to 
creeds.' F. * I gradually came to realise (26) that vital 
religion is the breath of life to all earnest souls, and is 
not confined to churches or formulas/ F. 'From my 
sister I learned (27) that religion is not something 
tacked on to life. From external observance I passed 
to subjective life and oneness with Spirit/ M. ' I came 
to see that to know God is not a matter of the intellect, 
but that to live is to know Him/ M. * I came to feel 
(24) that all dogmatic teaching was a matter of chance 
and habit ; that the life of religion depended on the 
force of faith, not the terms of it/ 

The interpretation of the reconstruction period in 
physiological terms seems to be that the personality 
is now identical with the higher brain areas. If we 
accept Hughlings-Jackson's theory, it is coming to live 
on the highest level of the nervous system ; or, in the 
Flechsig terminology, the self has become wholly 
organised in the association-centres of the cortex. 
There has been a complete co-ordination between the 
higher brain areas and the lower. Life is reduced to a 
harmony, with the synthesis on the side of the higher 
spiritual centres of consciousness. The various ex- 
periences easily harmonise with this point of view. 
For example, the fact that there is so often a reversion 
to the earlier childhood conceptions shows that the lower 
levels of the nervous system have been taken up and 
organised into the higher. It may be either that from 
fatigue the person has fallen back into the old brain 
tracks as the most convenient centre of organisation ; 
or, on the other hand, that the old conceptions and the 
new point of view are found to be in essence equivalent 



ADULT LIFE— PERIOD OF RECONSTRUCTION 291 

In the cases we are studying there are no instances of 
an apparent retrogression, a reversion into the identifica- 
tion of the self with the old channels of nervous dis- 
charge, although an instance or two of that kind has 
been found since the present study was organised. A 
pointed instance of this is that of a girl who, through 
religious struggles, experienced nervous prostration, and 
as a matter of self-defence gave up the struggle and fell 
back into extreme orthodoxy. She herself was con- 
scious that she did not dare to continue the struggle. 

Those cases in which there is an entire reorganisation 
of life along independent lines, in this point of view, are 
those in which the synthesis of life is so complete from 
the newly formed associational centres that kinship with 
the old is lost sight of. Either the earlier conceptions 
were not vital or are not enough one in nature with the 
new to be assimilated. An interesting type of this is 
illustrated in the following instance in which the ideas 
continue to be the same as in the doubt period, but the 
attitude has changed from a negative into a positive one, 
and bends toward sympathetic co-operation. A man 
about 30 writes : ' I have changed very little in my 
religious ideas since the first period of scepticism, except 
that I am less critical. I sometimes feel that I would 
like to be in some church, because the church is the 
greatest organised instrumentality for good that exists ; 
but when I imagine myself taking an active part in 
religious exercises such as prayer, I feel that it would 
be a sort of mockery.' 

That the trend of experience should be most com- 
monly towards a broader interpretation of childhood con- 
ceptions is in line with what we know of the functioning 
of the nervous system. It is the earlier impressions that 
are made in the nervous structure which are most apt to 
persist and through repetition become most indelible. 
They are consequently the ones that function either 
consciously or unconsciously in most vigorous ways 
throughout life. They will always remain the great 
channels for the expenditure of nervous energy unless 



2 9 2 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

by some miracle they are annihilated. When, in later 
life, one attains the power of religious insight, and the 
deeper forces speak through one, they call into activity 
the whole nature, and must consequently be tuned to 
the harmony of one's earlier habits of thought and 
activity. On the other hand, it is doubtless equally 
true that one cannot attain a deep revelation without 
approaching it from these central channels of one's 
nature ; ' Except ye become as little children, ye cannot 
enter into the kingdom of heaven.' 

Childhood things then enter into the later conception 
for two reasons : first, because it is impossible to escape 
the effect of the earlier conceptions, since they corre- 
spond to the great channels in the nervous mechanism ; 
second, because childhood conceptions are doubtless 
in the main right. What other test have we of the 
Tightness of those central conceptions which constitute 
the bone and sinew of religion than that the race has 
expressed itself most deeply through them, that they 
harmonise with our deepest impulses? These religious 
conceptions are the fullest interpretation of the life of 
any period. The child drinks in unconsciously the quali- 
ties in his environment that naturally lead him to these 
conceptions. He possesses an aptitude through heredity 
towards these ideas which are the common possession, 
and drinks in through his instinct of imitation those 
habits of thought which lead him irresistibly in this 
direction. Hence it is that there is passed on from 
one generation to the next that which is the purest 
essence of the life of the people, and at the same time 
the child contains within himself the germs of this life. 
It is not because the great truths which are embodied 
in dogmas and conventions are wrong that youth cannot 
understand them, but only that youth holds them at 
arm's-length in order to look at them and try to under- 
stand them. They have no meaning to him, simply 
because they are objects to his consciousness. To be 
religious facts they must constitute a part of his own 
nature ; they must be worked over into the world of 



ADULT LIFE— PERIOD OF RECONSTRUCTION 293 

values ; they must not only be the things seen, but must 
be part of the consciousness which sees. The soul of 
the youth is longing for a religion, and is trying to 
manufacture one. It is trying at the same time to be 
the maker and the thing made, and fails in the attempt. 
' The kingdom of heaven cometh not with observation/ 
The life of the senses must give way, and one must be 
willing to be an organ for the expression of universal 
life. ' The kingdom of heaven is within you/ This is 
the revelation that comes only in its completeness with 
maturity. One appreciates religious truth from within ; 
he himself is the embodiment of the deeper spiritual 
truth of the world, and is one in essence with the 
spiritual universe, which he has been trying to discover. 

1 For only by unlearning, Wisdom comes, 
And climbing backward to diviner Youth ; 
What the world teaches profits to the world, 
What the soul teaches profits to the soul, 
Which then first stands erect with God ward face, 
When she lets fall her pack of withered facts, 
The gleanings of the outward eye and ear, 
And looks and listens with her finer sense ; 
Nor Truth nor Knowledge cometh from without.' 

Having found the revelation within his own being, 
the full-grown man or woman sets about, as one of the 
units of an organised whole, to transform it into life. 



CHAPTER XXIII 



EXTERNAL INFLUENCES 



Up to this time we have been looking for the processes 
of growth, regardless in large measure of the forces 
from without which help to determine them. The 
force of surroundings has constantly been reflected; but 
it is worth our while, for the sake of equilibrium, to take 
our point of view for the moment in the external influ- 
ences and see how powerfully they act in shaping the 
character of the religious life, and to get a crude notion 
of the relative value of these influences in the opinion of 
the subjects themselves. 

The relative importance of some of these influences 
is suggested in Table XXV. It is made out on the 
basis of the percentage of cases in which the different 
items were mentioned. 



External Influence. 


Per Cent, of 
Cases. 


External Influence. 


Per Cent, of 
Cases. 




F. 


M. 




F. 


M. 


Parents (both) . 


23 


32 


Teacher . 


9 


6 


Father . 


3 


I 


Specific Writers 


17 


17 


Mother . 


8 


6 


Science . 


3 


8 


Others in Family 


3 


1 


Art, Music, Nature, 






Family Life 


2 


12 


Poetry 


8 


15 


Influence of Home 






Books (in general) . 


10 


12 


(total) . 


39 


52 


Deaths . 


9 


13 


A Friend . 


22 


29 


Misfortunes or Ill- 






Example of People . 


12 


13 


health . 


9 


2 


People (sum of two 






Personal Struggles . 





9 


preceding) 


34 


42 


Warning from Sur- 






Church or Pastor 


23 


29 


roundings . 


2 


5 



Table XXV. — Showing the relative pj-ominence of the external 

influences which shape the religious life, 

294 



EXTERNAL INFLUENCES 295 

Foremost among them are the influences of home 
life. First in this is, naturally, the influence and ex- 
ample of parents. It is often spoken of as the most 
powerful of all the influences. For example : ' My 
parents have been the strongest influence of my life, 
religiously and otherwise/ That of the mother is 
oftenest mentioned separately, and in the warmest 
terms. It is frequently the atmosphere of the home 
that is most strongly felt. One person says : ' I was 
kept steady during my youth by reflection on the 
happiness which so markedly characterised both my 
parents' and grandparents' homes.' 

Next in prominence is the influence of a friend, or the 
example of persons whose character is admired. F. 
' My life was influenced most by a bosom friend, whose 
lofty, noble character put to shame small things in me.' 
M. ' I had a tendency unconsciously to imitate a friend 
whom I admired. Someone sinned — I smiled ; my 
friend frowned. I never forgot it' M. ' The strongest 
influence was a girl, now dead, who was a schoolmate. 
I think she was worthy of w r orship.' F. ' The sunlight 
of the real God in my aunt warmed and inspired me.' 
M. ' My uncle shook me from my lethargy and im- 
morality.' 

Somewhat less frequent are the influences connected 
with church life. F. ' Church has been a second home 
to me all my life.' F. * The church has furnished 
spiritual food, and been a rudder and anchor to my 
life.' M. 'Hearing a sermon led me to devote my life 
to the ministry.' 

Brief hints of many others are found in the follow- 
ing: F. 'Nature calls up religious feelings constantly.' 
M. ' In reading books I have had a tendency to become 
like the characters I read of.' M. ' The study of the 
doctrine of evolution has added immensely to the 
Christian plan of salvation.' F. 'Misfortunes have been 
the greatest influence.' F. ' Hard fortune has developed 
my character and moral courage.' M. 'The sight of 
wicked people increased my desire to live a religious life.' 



296 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

F. ' I determined not to live as my father was living.' M. 
• The death of my father and being thrown on my own 
resources have had much to do with my growth/ M. 
1 The death of my brother increased my faith, and drew 
me nearer to God/ 

The fact of greatest significance in regard to the 
external influences is that they belong almost exclusively 
to childhood and youth. It is rarely that a deep 
impression is received after maturity. 

During early years it is the quieter influences that 
surround the child — those of home, parents and church 
— that leave their impress. The child is impression- 
able, and it seems to drink in its environment uncon- 
sciously, and afterward to appreciate its worth. 

The experiences of adolescence are more dramatic. 
Youth is called out in great ways by contact with 
persons and books ; the religious life is stirred by 
coming upon scientific conceptions, or by some fresh 
enthusiasm for art or nature ; it is often shaken by 
misfortunes and struggles. Youth is in an explosive 
condition, and is ready to be touched off by this 
influence or that. The adult is doubtless thrown into 
as many new surroundings — encounters as many crises 
in his contact with science or literature or people ; but 
they do not in the same way call forth a response. His 
habits are already formed ; his ways have become 
established. The mature person's life is controlled 
largely by ideals of his own ; it is determined more 
from within, while that of the child and that of the 
youth are influenced more from without. 

The biographies afford us glimpses into each step of 
the process of emancipation from the control of environ- 
ment. Older persons repeatedly avow themselves free 
from the authority of church, Bible, doctrines, and the 
like. Life is conducted in its own way, with all these as 
helps. One person, a woman of 35, says, ' As my religious 
life has deepened, I care less about attending church, 
although at times the service appeals to me strongly.' 
Along with the deepening of her own religious life a 



EXTERNAL INFLUENCES 297 

certain sense of self-sufficiency increases. Among the 
younger respondents, however, we sometimes find them 
in the act of shaking themselves free from external con- 
trol. A girl of 17 writes: * Because of circumstances I 
am a member of the church to which I belong. I am 
so troubled by the narrow views of my teachers that I 
have about decided to stay away from Sunday school 
and study the Bible for myself/ Doubt and storm 
and stress are evidences that the person is calling into 
question the established order of things, and gaining 
the power of conscious self-direction. 



CHAPTER XXIV 

GROWTH WITHOUT DEFINITE TRANSITIONS 

So far one important group has been neglected in our 
discussion of the growth from childhood to maturity. 
Many persons develop so evenly that it is impossible to 
distinguish transition points in their progress. Before 
proceeding to complete the picture of the religious life 
of maturity, we must bring these in review. If they 
have been neglected up to the present point, it is in part 
because their line of growth is not easily describable. 
Frequently all that can be said is that they grew out of 
a religion of childish simplicity, and have now put away 
childish things. Those persons to whom the last few 
chapters have been devoted, who have passed through 
a zigzag course of development, reflect more clearly the 
processes of growth, and, taken all together, show in 
more picturesque way the paths leading from childhood 
to adult life ; although, as will be seen later, they come 
out at about the same point as those whose develop- 
ment has been a process of unconscious growth, and 
who cannot mark out times and seasons. The mode of 
progress of the ones we have been considering is com- 
parable to that of the insect, which is now in the larva 
stage, now in the pupa, and now has become a full- 
grown butterfly. The others grow more as a tree, which 
year by year has been added to by a little ; and when 
the process is completed, one can only say it was then 
a tiny sprout, now it is a sturdy oak. Although there 
is often little to be said about the way in which these 
persons have passed from childhood to a vital grasp of 

298 



GROWTH WITHOUT DEFINITE TRANSITIONS 299 

spiritual things, and the causes which have led to the 
unfoldment, they were usually able at least to point 
out the direction of growth by contrasting its nature at 
the earlier and later times, and to indicate some of the 
conditions which have favoured so harmonious a de- 
velopment. The direction of their advance, as marked 
by the extremes between childhood and maturity, will 
be discussed in the later chapters. At present we shall 
confine ourselves to the consideration of those con- 
ditions which bring about gradual growth, and of some 
of the difficulties in the way of attaining it. 

One condition which seems to conduce to gradual 
development is religious surroundings in childhood, 
F. ■ Mother taught me to pray at her knee, and I 
always had a whispered prayer that none but God 
could understand. When I did anything wrong, mother 
required me to seek forgiveness. The change from 
careless, indifferent childhood to earnest, warm interest 
in God's work was very gradual and very natural after 
the good training I received.' F. ' Mother was patient 
and gentle with me. I had church and Sunday school 
associations of the pleasantest kind ; I was not taught 
anything about hell and Satan. I have not changed 
my childhood phrase, " Our Father in heaven," except 
to widen the term/ M. ' I had God-fearing parents, 
and was surrounded by all the influences which go to 
make godly character. From infancy I was taught to 
believe that I belonged to the Saviour, and that He 
loved me. My delight in Christian thought and asso- 
ciation has changed with the passing years only to 
become intensified/ The value of these surroundings 
was shown in a statistical way in the last chapter. Of 
the factors which have exerted a positive effect on the 
religious life, the influences of home were most fre- 
quently mentioned. It often happens that the religion 
of a child is an atmosphere which he breathes, so whole- 
some and enlivening that he takes it up and works it 
over into his very being. If we recall the fact, and 
appreciate the causes underlying it, that adult religion 



3 oo THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

is so often found to be simply an enlargement of the 
central conceptions of childhood, we shall see that not 
only the line of growth but the quality of the developed 
spiritual consciousness is in part determined by the 
quality of the spiritual air breathed by the child. If 
from the earliest years the child drinks in the conception 
that religion is a life of love and helpfulness and not a 
body of doctrines, it will go far toward obviating the 
necessity of learning it as a painful lesson. 

Another pretty clearly marked condition of gradual 
growth is that children be kept reasonably free from 
dogmas which they are incapable of assimilating. The 
dogmas may be in essence right if they can be fully 
interpreted, and it may be and probably is necessary to 
teach children much that they cannot understand — in 
fact, many things that appeal to the deeper intuitions, 
and that will never be understood as clear cognitions ; 
but it should never be forgotten that religious con- 
ceptions easily crystallise, and that one of the greatest 
hindrances to growth is that these set forms which 
project themselves out of an earlier life frequently be- 
come so numerous and insoluble as to be unassimilable 
by the young person who is starting life afresh. The 
freedom of childhood to grow in a natural and un- 
hampered way seems often a means of escaping serious 
crises. One woman writes : ' I had no religious obliga- 
tions imposed upon me, but followed my own will. My 
child-life was a delight. I have had complete faith in 
God from childhood/ Another respondent, a man, 
says : ' Traditional theology never appealed to me, but 
always since my early years I have felt myself a child 
of God. My growth has been even from childhood/ 
The danger, on the other hand, of forcing conceptions 
upon children which do not fit is illustrated in the 
following instance : F. { A Sunday school teacher tried 
to impress my unworthiness and sin upon me, and told 
me that I would be lost for ever if I was not converted. 
For three years I waited in misery of mind for the 
expected conversion. Fortunately a dear friend ex- 



GROWTH WITHOUT DEFINITE TRANSITIONS 301 

plained that unless I had done something very wrong, 
or had some heathen beliefs to cast aside, all I needed 
was to make a public avowal of my faith and purpose. 
I was tremendously relieved, and joined church in 
a month. I realise more and more my insignificance, 
and God's power and glory.' 

Still another cause which facilitates even and har- 
monious growth is that the needs of the child be care- 
fully met at every point in its development. A typical 
case is the following, of a woman whose surroundings 
apparently adapted themselves progressively to her 
needs.: 'As I grew older, and read more and was 
guided and strengthened by parents and teachers, I 
gradually came to understand what Christianity means, 
and to trust it. I had religious convictions from child- 
hood ; their influence on me grew as my love and 
Christian surroundings grew, and gradually shaped my 
spiritual life/ Especially are these helps needed toward 
the beginning of adolescence. At that time a certain 
amount of independence of thought and action seems a 
natural and wholesome demand of one's nature. If 
serious intellectual questionings are met seriously, it 
appears that often youth is kept steady when otherwise 
it might rebel. A minister of the writer's acquaintance, 
who is a wise teacher and parent, learned indirectly that 
his son was beginning to inquire into the things he 
had been taught, and had even asked for reasons why 
he should believe in the existence of God. Instead 
of treating the slumbering doubt as an offence against 
religion, and fearing that the boy was on the downward 
road, he awaited his opportunity to help him through 
his difficulties. He describes the incident in this way: 
1 It was in the evening. We walked together chatting 
in most familiar fashion. I took him by the hand, and 
after a little pause in the conversation, I said substan- 
tially, " I heard something good about you the other 
day, something that showed that you are growing 
toward manhood." Of course he wanted to know what 
I had heard, and I told him. I told him that children 

21 



3 02 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

get most of their first ideas from their parents, just as the 
little robins get their food from their parents, but that 
as they grow they want to know some reason for their 
opinions ; that I was glad to have him ask for reasons 
for believing that there is a God ; that this question of 
his made my heart leap with gladness as I thought of the 
time when we would sit in my study as companions in 
thought, and talk over great things/ The father adds, 
1 The boy is a Christian man at this writing, preparing a 
graduating thesis on Christian Ethics/ 

The cases are numerous which indicate the lack of 
wisdom of teachers or parents in failing to sympathise 
with the real needs of young persons, and the con- 
sequent reaction against social standards. The follow- 
ing instances will illustrate : F. ' I was pushed by older 
people into questionable extremes of piety/ (Years of 
revolt succeeded). F. ' My Sunday-school teacher tried 
to get me to join the church ; when he talked to me it 
would harden me instantly/ M. ' My parents and 
teachers impressed upon me that I must believe all or 
nothing (at 19.) It did not take me long to decide 
which/ M. ' Among all my childish troubles, " keep- 
ing the Sabbath holy," and being slicked up and dragged 
to church and Sunday school were the most dreadful. 
On Sundays we could not whittle, go faster than a 
walk, go down to the river, laugh, play in any way, 
whistle, etc. Sunday was a black chasm. No one who 
has not passed through it can imagine how I felt as 
Saturday night drew on. It was as if I were about to 
" walk through the valley of the shadow of death." We 
were obliged to spend the day at church and Sunday 
school, both of which I loathed. I must have listened 
to a certain pastor for nearly ten years, but the only 
impression left on my mind was of a blue-jay jumping 
up and down on a limb and scolding me at the top of 
his voice, and I hated the sight or even thought of him. 
In addition to the torture of church and Sunday school, 
we were obliged to commit to memory whole psalms, 
chapters of the Bible, hymns, and the thing I worst of 



GROWTH WITHOUT DEFINITE TRANSITIONS 303 

all detested was the reading of certain so-called "re- 
ligious books." I rather enjoyed Pilgrim's Progress, 
but one particular book caused me more distress than 
everything else in my boyish experience put together. 
It is Jeremy Taylor's Memoirs. I never got more than 
half through it, but I was compelled to read at it for 
years. Such an utter loathing was developed toward 
that book that it seems as if even now it would be an 
agreeable pastime to tear out the leaves one by one and 
crumple and burn them. Every touch of religious ideas 
was paralysing, and as they were forced upon me and 
smeared all over me, it seems like an attempt to crust 
over the actively moving, growing and feeding larva 
with the pupa case too soon. It left behind it a strong 
aversion to developing in the direction of the sort of 
religious life which had been revealed to my child mind; 
and this may account for the course of my subsequent 
growth, or for some features of it at least/ (Reaction 
and indifference followed from 24 to 26.) 

One reason why the religious lives of many persons 
develop symmetrically and harmoniously is clearly that 
there is a certain mixture of faith and doubt continually 
— a sufficient degree of freedom to question all things 
to insure a clear horizon, and enough trust and insight 
and poise of spirit to remain firmly rooted in the heart 
of religion. M. ' Doubts (at 18) were the occasion of 
giving up weaker for stronger incentives to virtue. 
Spiritual growth preceded the doubt. I always felt 
beneath me a strong foundation of truth/ F. * My 
growth has been gradual. Since I came in contact 
with people of other faiths my beliefs have broadened ; 
I have come to see good in almost every faith, but have 
clung to my own church. I have accepted the later 
ideas of the atonement and the inspiration of the Bible. 
God is my rock and fortress, and I trust Him/ M. 
(Clergyman of an orthodox church.) 'Studies have 
carried me away from some of the old landmarks ; I 
never get excited when I see another one disappearing. 
I have learned, too, to " doubt my doubts." I am an 



3 o 4 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

evolutionist. , F. ' I never was orthodox, so doubts do 
not trouble me. I am sifting, changing, rejecting, all 
the time. I am holding my opinions open to change, 
modification and adjustment of any kind, after the 
testimony on the subject, both for and against, is all in.' 
The proper balance of faith and doubt during adoles- 
cence appears to be of relatively rare occurrence. The 
conception of life which seems to underlie these in- 
stances is that religion is a growing thing, and that its 
growth consists in an endless process of refining. They 
raise the question as to whether it would not be in the 
interest of religion for such an attitude to become 
habitual. We shall see in the next chapter that it is a 
common trend of development for adults to reach that 
point of view at which they look upon religion as a 
dynamic rather than a completed thing. Not only is 
the spiritual life so considered, but the body of religious 
conceptions are looked upon as capable of indefinite 
modification and progress. An instance already re- 
ferred to in the chapter on Doubt is so much in point 
that it bears repetition in this connection. It is that of 
a clergyman who writes : ' I have not passed through a 
series of beliefs. All my thinking has been an expan- 
sion of the fundamental conception reached while in 
college that the death of Christ was a declaration that 
there never was, nor ever could be, an obstacle between 
God and man. I always hail doubt as sure to reveal 
some unexpected truth. As often as I have tried to 
dodge doubts, I have suffered. My real doubts have 
always come upon me suddenly and unaccountably, and 
have been the precursors of fresh discovery/ In this 
case there has been supreme reverence for the ' funda- 
mental conception reached while in college/ but at the 
same time there has been that attitude toward it which 
allows it to expand and intensify indefinitely. In the 
light of these records, it seems possible to come to such 
an attitude in regard to honest doubt that it will be a 
means of conserving energy and of rendering growth 
eyei} and harmonious instead of being the very thing 



GROWTH WITHOUT DEFINITE TRANSITIONS 305 

which so often throws life into a state of discord and 
perplexity. 

These are some of the conditions, then, which con- 
tribute to the gradual type of religious growth in 
which a high degree of spiritual perfection is attained 
as naturally and easily as a plant unfolds. That such 
harmonious development is possible is beautifully illus- 
trated in the case of Dr Edward Everett Hale, the 
strength and symmetry of whose character needs 
no emphasis. He discusses the nature of his growth 
and the influences which led to it in these words : ' I 
observe, with profound regret, the religious struggles 
which come into many biographies, as if almost essen- 
tial to the formation of the hero. I ought to speak of 
these, to say that any man has an advantage, not to be 
estimated, who is born, as I w r as, into a family where 
the religion is simple and rational ; who is trained in 
the theory of such a religion, so that he never knows, 
for an hour, what these religious or irreligious struggles 
are. I always knew God loved me, and I was always 
grateful to Him for the world He placed me in. I always 
liked to tell Him so, and was always glad to receive His 
suggestions to me. 

1 To grow up in this way saves boy or youth from 
those battles which men try to describe and cannot 
describe, which seem to use up a great deal of young life. 
I can remember perfectly that, when I was coming to 
manhood, the half-philosophical novels of the time had 
a deal to say about the young men and maidens who 
were facing the "problem of life." I had no idea what- 
ever what the problem of life was. To live with all my 
might seemed to me easy ; to learn where there was so 
much to learn seemed pleasant and almost of course ; 
to lend a hand, if one had a chance, natural ; and if one 
did this, why, he enjoyed life because he could not help 
it, and without proving to himself that he ought to 
enjoy it. I suppose that a skilful professor of the busi- 
ness could have prodded up my conscience, which is, I 
think, as sensitive as another's. I suppose I could have 



3 o6 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

been made very wretched, and that I could have made 
others very wretched. But I was in the hands of no 
such professor, and my relations with the God whose 
child I am were permitted to develop themselves in the 
natural way. 

' Now, no man can choose the religious communion 
into which he can be born, more than he can choose the 
place of his birth. But it may be possible, for those 
who have to direct the education of children, to see 
that that education shall be conducted on the lines 
which I have indicated. A child who is early taught 
that he is God's child, that he may live and move and 
have his being in God, and that he has, therefore, in- 
finite strength at hand for the conquering of any diffi- 
culty, will take life more easily, and probably will make 
more of it, than one who is told that he is born the child 
of wrath and wholly incapable of good/ x 

In this description Dr Hale undoubtedly holds up 
an ideal that is well worth striving after, namely, 
to make the most out of life with the least waste of 
energy. But the standard here set must remain for the 
majority of human beings an ideal. We have to face 
the fact that at the present time and with the con- 
ditions under which we live, growth usually does not 
come in that way ; and, if we appreciate only a fraction 
of the difficulties in passing from childhood to maturity, 
we shall see that such a course is well-nigh impossible. 
As has been fitly said, the child is to traverse in a few 
years the path which has been passed over by the race 
in as many millions of years. It is the miracle of pro- 
ducing in this short time an essentially spiritual life, 
which is as much above the innocent life of childhood as 
the indefinitely fine and complex physiological function- 
ing of a mammal is above that of a protozoon. The 
quality of life on this higher plane is infinitely complex 
and delicate; and, in the interplay of forces, there is a 
chance at every point for the normal course of develop- 
ment to be side-tracked. In the records we are 
1 Foriwi, Vol. X., p. 70, * Formative Influences.' 



GROWTH WITHOUT DEFINITE TRANSITIONS 307 

studying there are many instances in which it appears 
that all of the conditions pointed out above for the 
attainment of harmonious growth have been fulfilled, 
and in which growth, after all, is attended with friction 
and difficulty. Some of the forces which tend to thwart 
even development, and which are relatively out of the 
possibility of control, are apparent in the records. One 
of these is the one we have already mentioned — a lack 
of physical vitality sufficient to support the mental 
activity. One of the respondents, a man whose youth 
was full of storm and stress, writes : ' I was reared in a 
Christian home and sheltered as closely from evil as one 
could be. I was taught from the first to regard myself 
a Christian, and, above all, to do right and to please God. 
I stopped going to high school from nervous prostration 
at 16. Religion was my all-absorbing interest, and I 
sought to carry it out in practice. I studied and began to 
doubt. There came a time when I would have answered 
the questions of God and immortality in the negative.' 

The difficulty of getting through adolescence with- 
out a crisis is also heightened by the fact that physio- 
logical growth is not continuous. During a year or two 
at the beginning of youth, the volume of the heart 
increases almost to the size of that of an adult, the 
arterial system diminishes in volume, and blood-pressure 
is very much augmented ; there are more red corpuscles 
in the blood, the lung capacity is increased, and there is 
more carbonic acid in the breath — all of which show 
that rapid transformations are going on in the organism. 
If nature has established this developmental crisis 
in physiological growth, which we must regard as 
normal, we should not be surprised to find as marked 
irregularities in the psychic life. Indeed, it is a well- 
recognised fact that the physiological changes are 
directly connected with the psychic condition. It is 
not uncommon to regard peculiarities of temperament 
as dependent largely on circulation, 1 and temperament 

1 P. Lesshaft, ( De t education de F enfant dans la famille, et de sa 
signification** 



3 o8 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

we have found to be one of the central factors which 
determine the character of religious experience. Given 
two persons reared in perfectly wholesome religious 
surroundings, if one is naturally highly sensitive, and 
the other phlegmatic, the former is more likely to be- 
come restless and reactionary during the adolescent 
transformations, while the other may have an unevent- 
ful growth. If we appreciate the complexity of life in 
both its outer and inner relations, we shall see the liability 
of producing a tangle in the warp and woof of the 
inter-acting forces. In the multiform society in which 
a human being is compelled to live, it is manifestly 
impossible to control all of the influences and be sure 
that they are the very best — many of the difficulties 
which arise are professedly the result of unpropitious 
surroundings. And the complexity is just as great on 
the subjective side. Out of the multitude of conceptions 
which it is possible for a mind to entertain, only one, or 
at most a few, can be held as the object of clear con- 
sciousness at one time. But we live in an environment 
in which there are no end of conceptions that are 
imposed on one, in which there are countless duties that 
arise to crowd out or offset one's habitual mode of 
activity. The problem of squaring one's life with these 
is not the difficulty of steering between Scylla and 
Charybdis, but a thousandfold more delicate. One 
can, indeed, let the problems go, and live in one's own 
way; but unless one's own way happens to be nature's 
way, as determined by the course that the whole of life 
is pursuing, one's life becomes severed from the whole, 
and is consequently lost. Society insists on her forms 
as inviolably right. Each individual is compelled 
sooner or later to take them into account ; and this is 
no easy matter, for it is one of the deepest instincts, 
which shows itself at the very beginning of life, to hold 
one's own ground, to insist on one's own point of view. 
But another instinct, just as forceful, draws one toward 
the thought-life of the whole— the instinct of sociality, 
the desire to share the life of society. The chances are 



GROWTH WITHOUT DEFINITE TRANSITIONS 309 

very great that one will be caught between these 
warring influences. It is an inevitable condition of 
developing consciousness that there shall be great 
tenacity for a conception, religious or otherwise, which 
is once entertained. Consciousness grows by such 
conceptions, and for a time they seem all-important 
It is equally inevitable, as one develops out of a child- 
hood in which a few conceptions fill one's mental 
horizon, that new ones should project themselves into 
the field of consciousness. It is difficult to gain a new 
idea, and next to impossible to change one's point of 
view. Some sort of friction and clash is almost sure to 
arise. It is certain to come in adolescence, when the 
great transition from a life of the senses into a world of 
ideas and spiritual perceptions is to be accomplished, 
unless the youth is so happily constituted that nature 
works out the result for him and he wakens up to the 
fact that he is a full-grown spirit. And the struggle is 
likely to continue until one comes to welcome the 
approach of new conceptions, while at the same time 
treasuring the old ; until he looks on life as a growing 
thing ; until he has set his faith on ideals, and has 
learned the secret of helping them to develop. 

The end of life seems to be growth, and in the very 
analysis of these difficulties which seem to bar the way 
of free development, they present themselves as im- 
perfections which must be overcome. That is, it appears 
to be an ideal constantly to be striven after, that growth 
should be full and harmonious and beautiful, and that 
the end should be reached without a hitch. We maybe 
led into some wisdom in the attainment of this ideal by 
keeping in mind what appears to be the condition which 
underlies it, expressed in physiological terms — namely, 
the final, complete co-ordination of the lower and higher 
brain areas. The difficulty during adolescence is to 
bring into activity a new brain area and make it 
harmonise with the rest. Whatever steps will make 
this co-ordination keep up with the rate of growth, 
whatever will progressively bring into free activity any 



3 io THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

part which is ripe for functioning, will tend to ward off 
a catastrophe. Expressed in these terms, one sees the 
danger, for example, of crystallising the life of a child 
about conceptions which are too far beyond its grasp ; 
to dose children on constantly reiterated theological 
doctrines establishes channels of nervous discharge 
which must of necessity in childhood be on a lower 
level, and which are so deeply cut that, a little later, 
any new discharges from a higher level are wilfully 
inhibited. There is doubtless no surer way of passing 
through adolescence safely than by a wise anticipation 
during later childhood of the most healthy lines of 
growth. If the higher brain areas which are to function 
in the fully developed spiritual life are brought little by 
little into activity, their more complete functioning at a 
later time will be a matter of course. Any means 
whatsoever which will lead toward the most complete 
co-ordination of the brain areas and unification of the 
personality by a process of harmonious development 
seems to be in accord with nature's way. 

A few persons seem to have an uneventful de- 
velopment because they do not leave the religion of 
childhood, perhaps never wake up to an immediate 
realisation of religion. They raise the question whether 
it would not have been conducive to growth even to 
have suffered a little on the rack of doubt and storm 
and stress. 



CHAPTER XXV 

ADULT L I F E— B E L I E F S 

In the chapters preceding, we have followed the de- 
velopment of religion from childhood through the many 
diverging lines of adolescence. In these complexities 
we found a unifying centre in the development of religions 
self-consciousness. Somewhat to our surprise, at the 
close of adolescence, we came upon a definite turning- 
point, which marked the entrance upon mature life. 
The fact which underlay this transition from youth to 
manhood and womanhood, and brought unity into its 
very great diversity, appeared to be the final co- 
ordination of the higher life of intelligence and insight 
and the lower life of the senses. The mature person we 
found to be one who carries his higher unity over into 
a life of action. In the following three chapters we shall 
follow up the line of evidence still further by analysing 
the beliefs, feelings and ideals given by the respondents 
as a description of their status at the time when they 
made their records. 

In doing this we shall meet greater differences than 
heretofore. As life advances, it becomes progressively 
more complex. There are in reality as many lines of 
growth from earliest childhood as there are persons 
who develop ; but by studying them in their relation 
to one another, we are able to find a few well-marked 
types that reflect certain great trends of develop- 
ment. We may trace the line of growth by three 
methods. In the first place we may follow the individual 
tendencies as the respondents analyse their development 

311 



312 



THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 



step by step. Again, since we have already noticed a 
tendency towards adolescent storm and stress, followed 
usually by a reconstruction, we may keep the beliefs, 
feelings and ideals of the persons in different stages of 
this process separate, and so let them cast their special 
horoscope at different points in the line of advance. 
These persons in turn we shall compare with those whose 
growth has been entirely gradual. In the third place 
we may separate the subjects into age-groups and so 
determine what beliefs, feelings and ideals are character- 
istic of different periods in life. 

Central Beliefs. 

Before we trace the line of growth through mature 
life, it is important to get a picture of those beliefs 
that are actually present and central in adult religious 
consciousness, and about which religious consciousness 
organises itself. These, together with the percentages 
of their frequency, arc shown in Table XXVI. 



Cod 

Christ 

Immortality ....... 

Conduct . 

Religion as a Life within ..... 

Religion as a Process of Crow tli . 
Religion Centering in Philosophical or Scientific 
Conceptions 



Female. 



Male. 



75 


75 


43 
23 


44 
28 


21 


28 


15 


21 


9 


27 



24 



TABLE XXVI. — SJioudng in per cod. of cases the most ce/itral religions 

beliefs. 

These headings will not be clear without some eluci- 
dation. Each of them is a composite of somewhat 
varying conceptions. The beliefs included in the first 
heading centre in the conception of a Being who is back 



ADULT LIFE— BELIEFS 3 t 3 

of the world and in it, and who controls it. God is 
variously described as Creator or Father, as Law or 
Love, as Force or Underlying Reality, as the Spirit in 
all things, and the like. Those instances are included 
which evade the term God, but nevertheless profess faith 
in an existence analogous to what other people mean by 
it. One person, for example, says : ' I feel myself a part 
of something bigger than I, that controls me/ The 
belief in Christ has also a diverse content. With some 
He is a personal Saviour, or the Saviour of the world 
in an unique sense ; with others He is the ideal of per- 
fect manhood ; a number simply express belief in Christ 
without saying further what they mean by the term. 
The character of the belief in immortality was usually 
not specified. One described the future life as non- 
corporeal, and two as the indestructibility of that which 
exists. The next heading includes those who regard 
right conduct as an essential element in religion. The 
meaning of the heading can be most readily seen by 
some typical quotations. A man of 34 writes : ' Religion 
with me means a system of life, an integral part of 
human evolution. Morality is the thing to be striven 
for ; but morality must have a religious sanction, a 
loving Deity/ A similar point of view is expressed by 
a woman of 54, who says: 'The higher life means health 
and spiritual tone and sympathy with people. It means 
to me a higher relationship with my fellow- man. God 
is the spring of this life, but it finds its expression in 
activity/ 

The term 'Religion as a Life Within' demands 
fuller explanation. Persons frequently come to feel that 
the sanctions of life are not to be found at all in any- 
thing external, but within one's own consciousness ; that 
the higher life, if found at all, is revealed within one's 
personality; that religion exists as an impulse toward a 
higher life ; that specific beliefs are non-essential, that the 
significance of religion is to be grasped not by reason, 
but by faith ; and that the essence of life is spirit. These 
persons represent q. somewhat distinct type of belief, or 



3 i4 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

rather, of attitude toward life, which is almost diametric- 
ally opposed to the group comprised in the last heading 
of the table. The character of the type is suggested by 
the following quotations : M., 37. ' Not with the intellect, 
but with the spirit, man finds God/ F., 30. ' Vital religion 
is the breath of life with all earnest souls, and is not con- 
fined to creeds or formulas/ M., 44. ' Religion to me is 
a sort of instinct, an impulse toward a higher life.' F., 
36. ' The most bottom truth is my own existence with 
capacity for working, feeling, loving and worshipping. 
That which commands my love and reverence is uni- 
versal, and is for all/ 

The next heading, ' Religion as a Process of Growth/ 
is somewhat akin to the last, but differs from it in re- 
spect to the prominence of the notion that life is 
dynamic, that religion consists essentially not in some- 
thing that remains fixed as an object of faith, but in a 
progression from the lower to the higher. M., 27. i I 
believe in evolution, in spiritual progress, as expressed 
in the Chambered Nautilus. My conception of the world 
is that phenomena represent a progression out of mystery 
toward truth, goodness and beauty in increasing ratio to 
evil/ M., 57. * Religion means steadily upward progress/ 

In distinction from the last two groups are those 
who regard religion as largely conditioned by philo- 
sophic or scientific conceptions. These are typical : 
M., 24. ' I have a profound and earnest belief in the 
doctrine of evolution. It has had more to do with the 
direction of my beliefs than anything else. It has 
added immensely to the grandeur of the Christian plan 
of redemption. I have honest doubt as to many popular 
beliefs, because they are absolutely contradictory to 
established scientific facts/ M., 23. ' The philosophic 
search for truth and devotion to ideals is my doctrine/ 
F., 74. ■ Science is the only source of enlightened wis- 
dom, morality and peace/ M., 32. ' I look to nature's 
laws for all I hope for/ These cases represent the 
demand for a clear, intellectual horizon, for a grasp of 
the world as a system. The unity which is gained is 



ADULT LIFE— BELIEFS 315 

the instrument of selection of one's religious conceptions. 
Those beliefs are retained which easily harmonise with 
it. The system itself even comes to have religious 
significance. 

These seven most important objects of belief are 
given in the table above in their order of frequency. 
The figures show the percentage of cases in which the 
various items are mentioned. Each of these conceptions 
is sometimes spoken of as that in which belief centres — 
the one without which the whole religious attitude would 
change. The order of frequency with which each is 
central happens to be the same as that in the table, 
with the one exception, that Conduct stands first instead 
of fourth. 

The Line of Growth in Belief. 

In the first place, we shall inquire into the line of 
growth of one particular group of our subjects, namely, 
those who have passed through adolescent storm and 
stress and doubt. We found in an earlier chapter that 
these could easily be divided into three groups — those 
who still have a negative attitude toward religion, those 
in process of reconstruction, and those whose faith has 
been reconstructed ; we noticed furthermore that the 
ages of these persons formed an ascending series. Con- 
sequently, if we compare the religious convictions of these 
three classes, we shall have a means of determining the 
line of advance in beliefs with age for this particular type 
of experience. We shall be able at the same time to 
contribute something to the preceding picture of adol- 
escence, and the way toward positive faith by noticing 
what beliefs are central in the earlier years, and how 
they increase or decrease with age. This is shown in 
the first three vertical columns of Table XXVII. The 
numbers give the percentage of the persons in each of 
the three groups by whom a certain object of belief is 
mentioned. 

From the first column it is evident that the three 



316 



THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 







OQT! 


C/l 1 

<u £ G 

o o o 

o o-« 

iH V {j 


rt 5 2s 


04 
2 2 C C 

OOsS 


Growth 
Gradual, 
(age under 24) 


God. 


F. 
M. 

F. 
M. 

F. 

M. 


Per Cent. 

44 
(33) 


Per Cent. 
42 

50 


Per Cent 
85 

79 


Per Cent. 

85 

85 


Per Cent. 
73 

67 


Christ 


o 
o 


8 

21 


41 

52 


40 

45 


47 
67 


Immortality 


6 




O 

O 


26 

34 


20 

25 


20 
22 


Conduct (Morality) . 


F. 
M. 


19 

(33) 


25 

6 4 


26 
21 


10 
20 


7 
22 


Religion as a Life 
Within . 


F. 
M. 


o 
o 


17 

O 


29 
37 


30 

45 



11 


Religion as Dynamic 


F. 
M. 






13 
(67) 


25 

7 


9 

37 


15 

20 


7 
44 


Religion as centering in 
Science or Philosophy 


F. 
M. 



21 


9 
17 


5 
15 



11 



Table XXVII. — Showing how religions beliefs vary in different 
stages of development. 

beliefs which remain most firm during negation are those 
which centre in God, Conduct and Scientific conceptions. 
The number of persons, especially of men, in this 
column is so small that the figures do not bear close in- 
terpretation. Their value is enhanced, however, by the 
fact that they fall so well in line with what we found in 
the study of adolescence. It was observed there that, 
during the absence of distinctly religious feelings, the 
ethical and intellectual impulses came to the front. We 



ADULT LIFE— BELIEFS 317 

see from the table that in respect to belief likewise these 
two aspects of consciousness are active, the one making 
religion centre about morality, the other about scientific 
or philosophic conceptions. Also prominent is the 
belief in God, which is clearly for all the groups and 
all the ages the greatest organising centre of belief. The 
first three of these types of belief have a tendency to 
decrease during the second and last stages of reconstruc- 
tion, while the belief in God distinctly increases. During 
negation the beliefs in Christ and Immortality, suffer 
an almost complete ^rejection. The conceptions of 
religion as a dynamic power and as a life within 
have not yet become appreciated. This fact fits it 
perfectly with the prominence of the philosophic and 
scientific ideas, which may be regarded as diametric- 
ally opposed to them. During the second and third 
stages in the process we notice some marked changes. 
The belief in Christ which was rejected during the 
period of negation is already becoming reinstated in 
the second stage, and among those whose faith is finally 
reconstructed it has come to be present in about half 
the cases. The belief in Immortality, however, does not 
reappear until the final reconstruction, and is then pre- 
sent in about one-third of the cases. 

As a help to the farther discussion we must consider 
the sexes separately. The rational conceptions almost 
disappear among the women, but persist among the men ; 
the religious life of men during the process of recon- 
struction centres to a remarkably large degree in con- 
duct, but this factor remains fairly constant among 
women. It is during the second stage that religion as 
a process of growth and as a life within comes suddenly 
to the front with women, but this development does not 
appear among the men until the time of final reconstruc- 
tion. During the process of reconstruction the life of 
women centres in a subjective appreciation of religion 
as shown in the prominence of religion as growth and 
as a life within, while that of the men passes over into 
thinking and doing, as evidenced by the large percent- 

22 



318 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

ages under science and philosophy and conduct If we 
take the sexes together and consider all the types of 
belief, it is evident that the line of growth is toward 
the reinstatement of the faith in Christ and of that in 
Immortality, toward the gradual depreciation of rational 
and ethical conceptions, and toward the enlargement of 
the belief in religion as a growing thing, and as a life 
appreciated from within. 

We are now to ascertain the line of growth in beliefs 
of the other large group of the cases, those whose de- 
velopment has been gradual. In columns four and five 
of Table XXVII. is found a comparison of the beliefs 
of those above 24 with those below that age. For the 
sake of convenience in comparing the beliefs of the older 
persons with those of the later stages of reconstruction, 
the natural order of the two gradual growth columns in 
regard to age is reversed. Comparing, then, the fifth 
column with the fourth, we find, just as in the last 
group, an increase in the belief in God and Immortality 
and a persistence in ethical beliefs. These contradict 
the last group, however, in the respect that there is a 
considerable decrease in the belief in Christ, and that the 
worth of rational conceptions is enhanced with age. This 
seems to be due to the fact that those whose develop- 
ment has been gradual have not been roused during the 
earlier years seriously to question matters of religious 
doctrine, whereas the others have passed through the 
period of negation at an earlier time and have come to 
a positive point of view. 

In regard to the comparison of religion as growth, 
it decreases among the men and increases among the 
women, which is just the reverse order of that in the last 
group. This difference entices one to attempt an ex- 
planation, which may, at the same time, prove faulty. It 
seems to bear out the difference already pointed out, that 
the persons of the gradual growth group now begin to 
question religious matters more seriously just at the 
time when those who have reconstructed their faith have 
settled their difficulties and are moving along spiritually. 



ADULT LIFE— BELIEFS 319 

Although there is an increase in the percentage of 
women who regard religion as a growth, this would not 
have been the case if the dividing line had been taken 
at 30 instead of 24. All those who make up the 15 per 
cent, of women in column four of the table are between 
the ages of 24 and 30. 

The most marked increment in any of the groups is 
that in the class who appreciate religion as a life within. 
This is in accordance with what we found in the last 
group, and points toward this as one of the most central 
tendencies in adult religious development. This result 
is of especial interest as being the first pointed answer 
to the question whether those whose growth has been 
even come out at the same point as those who have 
wandered through adolescence by devious ways. In this 
respect, which is most central for both classes, they 
exactly agree. 

The similarity in the final outcome of the two lines 
of growth is yet more fully brought out if we compare 
columns three and four in the table which represent 
adult persons of a comparable age. Glancing down the 
columns, we find not only the same beliefs present in 
both classes, but the percentage is almost the same in 
every instance. The only marked differences are in the 
ethical beliefs among women and in the conception of 
religion as growth in both sexes — differences the signifi- 
cation of which is not clear. The inference from the 
comparison of the mature life as determined by its 
attitude toward various great questions of religious 
belief is that gradual growth and that which is ac- 
companied by stress and fluctuations are different ways of 
attaining the same end. 

For the sake of a more complete picture of the line 
of growth, all the cases, separated into age-groups, are 
thrown together in Table XXVIII. The figures 
represent the percentages of the number in each age- 
group who mention any of the beliefs. The value of 
the table is in following the line from left to right to see 
whether the different beliefs increase or decline with age. 



320 



THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 





Females. 


Males. 




Year. 


Year. 




16-29 


20-23 


24-29 


3o-39 


40 or 
over. 


20-24 


25-29 


3o-39 


40 or 
over. 


Belief in God . 


67 


78 


6 7 


79 


95 


62 


61 


88 


90 


Belief in Christ . 


22 


5o 


39 


26 


35 


52 


39 


41 


42 


Belief in Immortality 


18 


17 


11 


37 


35 


10 


22 


29 


53 


Belief in Conduct ('Mor- 
ality) .... 


16 


17 


22 


10 


45 


29 


22 


35 


26 


Belief in Religion as a 
Life Within . 





6 


J 7 


32 


40 


10 


11 


24 


42 


Belief in Religion as 
Growth .... 





22 


28 





10 


33 


22 


33 


16 


Belief in Science or Philo- 
sophy .... 


4 








11 


10 


43 


II 


24 


16 


Rejection of certain Beliefs 
as Non-essential . 


18 


6 


17 


63 


70 


19 


28 


4i 


53 


Rejection of Immortality . 


4 





6 


16 


30 


14 


6 





11 



Table XXVIII. — Showing how beliefs vary with age. 

The belief in God in some form is by far the most 
central conception, and grows in importance as years 
advance. After 40 there are almost none who do not 
mention it. There is advance likewise in the quality of 
the belief which is not shown by the figures. Several 
of the younger persons express it in the exact phrase- 
ology of the Apostles' Creed ; but there are none of 
those over 25 who do not describe it with an evident 
appreciation of its content. A girl of 17, for example, 
says : ' Everything in the Apostles' Creed embodies my 
deepest belief/ These younger persons are often found 
in the process of awakenings to the signification of the 
idea of God. One young woman of 18 writes : ' I really 
believe there is a God/ Belief in God as a larger un- 
named Force or Spirit, or as a Power that works for 
righteousness, while common among the older persons, 
is almost never given by the younger. 



ADULT LIFE— BELIEFS 321 

The belief in Immortality, another world-problem, 
enters more into consciousness with age. In the last 
line of the table we see also that the conception of 
Immortality is more and more set aside as non-essential 
as life advances. The fact that acceptance and rejection 
of it both increase with age shows that it is a vital 
question which forces itself forward for consideration, 
and must be decided one way or the other. 

The belief in Christ, which we found to increase with 
age among those whose faith is reconstructed, continues 
to have about the same worth when both groups are 
taken together. With both sexes it has greatest promi- 
nence in the early twenties. 

It is of importance to notice the place which conduct 
holds as an organising centre of belief all through mature 
life. Underlying this fact is the same thing which has 
been forcing itself upon our attention all the way along 
from earliest childhood. The ethical instinct, the effort 
to do right, is far the most constant and persistent of 
all the forces that are active in the child life. In adoles- 
cence, when the new life bursts forth, its most important 
content was ethical. During storm and stress and doubt 
that which remained firmest when life was least organised 
was this same instinct. And now we find, in describing 
their fundamental attitudes toward life, that the re- 
spondents already in the late teens and twenties mention 
conduct almost as frequently as at any later time in life. 
It apparently continues to play a vital part all through 
life, while among the older women it seems to have even 
greater worth than among the younger. It should be 
recalled that among the things which are given as abso- 
lutely essential, the sine qua non of religion, conduct was 
most frequently mentioned. A woman of 40 writes: 'Life 
would be meaningless to me without a belief in God, but 
without it I would still continue to do my duty. The 
test of religion is conduct towards my fellow-beings/ 
Another person, a man of 30, says : ' Religion is more a 
life, a living, than a system. It is a series of daily 
actions which determines conduct. Its essence is daily 



322 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

doing of good to one's fellow-men.' Again, a woman of 
31 says: ' In case of the absence of a belief in God, I 
would still live by a categorical imperative.' The ethical 
instinct^ although not the most prominent > is the most con- 
stant and persistent factor in the religious life. 

That attitude toward religion which makes it centre 
in a rational system is relatively infrequent among the 
women ; among the men, although it remains common 
throughout life, it occurs most often in the early twenties. 
It is an interesting suggestion in the comparison of the 
sexes that its importance is greatest in the earlier years 
among men, and in the later years among women. 

The conception of religion as a process of growth, 
with the exception of the women under 20, begins vigor- 
ously, but later it declines in both sexes. It is natural 
that it should be greatest during those years when life 
is fullest of energy and activity. 

With the exception of the beliefs in God and Immor- 
tality, the conception of religion as a life within under- 
goes the most definite progress with years. It has more 
value than the belief in immortality in showing the 
central tendency in development from the fact that 
immortality is taught as a religious dogma, while the 
appreciation of religion as an inner life must, or at least 
apparently does, spring up spontaneously. It is not 
grasped by any of the women under 20, and seldom by 
those of either sex before 30. Among those instances 
which occur in the earlier years, most show this concep- 
tion in the process of formation. A man of 22 says : ' I 
see more of the goodness of God in everything. I am 
trying to see His will in whatever I do.' Another says : 
' Religion with me involves love and beauty, and possibly 
a realisation of myself as one with God.' It is instructive 
to contrast this tentative and uncertain point of view 
with that of some of the others in whom it has been 
worked over as one of the certainties of life. One person 
writes : ' The deepest religious truth to me is the power 
of a man to live a devout life. No beliefs are necessary, 
for religion is feeling.' Running parallel with the in- 



ADULT LIFE— BELIEFS 323 

crease of this conception of religion with years is the 
setting aside of certain beliefs as non-essential. Among 
these are the divinity of Christ, Immortality, the authority 
of the Church, the inspiration of the Bible, and the like, 
most of which are beliefs embodied in traditional doc- 
trines. This shows that the person is progressively 
working out for himself or herself an independent point 
of view, and is coming to appreciate religion rather than 
to look upon it objectively. This is the same tendency 
which was observed in regard to the belief in God. The 
two conceptions, belief in God and the one we are now 
considering, sometimes work together as that of the one- 
ness of God and man, of God expressing himself through 
human life. These two types show that the most central 
tendency is toward an appreciation of religion as a life 
zvithin, and toward a realisation of this as a part of the 
life of God. This falls in line with what we found in the 
study of conversion, which showed itself to be essentially 
a definite step in the birth of a spiritual self that was 
felt to be part of a larger life, 

The three groups of persons — those who have ex- 
perienced conversion, those who passed through storm 
and stress and doubt, and those whose growth has been 
gradual — in this respect show a similar culmination, and 
tend to establish the fact that we have here one of the 
great tendencies in religious development. 



CHAPTER XXVI 

ADULT LIFE — RELIGIOUS FEELINGS 

The religious feelings of mature life centre most natur- 
ally about three things : the sense of one's own spiritual 
life, the consciousness of the larger life outside the self, 
and an appreciation of the relationship existing between 
the self and this larger life. 

Those feelings which are intimately connected with 
the sense of one's own spiritual life are such as these : 
independence and freedom, joy and ecstasy, and spiritual 
exaltation. Adolescence we found to be a time when 
new life was beginning to function. At the same time 
distinctively religious feelings were rare. In maturity 
the fresh life rises into consciousness, and is worked over 
into an actual possession ; one has a sense of the new 
energy within. This shows itself in one way in the sense 
of freedom ; one person says : ' I feel immortal and inde- 
structible.' Others express it in a similar way. ' I feel 
independent of the world, and superior to fate.' 'When 
in the hills I desire nothing, feel nothing, but just exult 
in the reality of being.' This attitude represents the 
bare feeling of self-existence. Frequently the sense of 
one's own personality is suffused with emotion, and 
expresses itself as the feeling of joyousness while 
engaged in religious activity or during contemplation. 
For example : ' It is a delight to me to do God's work.' 
* Often at church my heart heaves with emotion, and 
finds an outlet in tears.' It is relatively infrequent that 
this type of feeling exists pure ; on the contrary, it is 

324 



ADULT LIFE—RELIGIOUS FEELINGS 325 

usually mingled with the sense of one's relationship 
to one's fellow-man and God. 

There is again the mere sense of the larger life — 
God, Nature, persons and society — outside the self as an 
object of contemplation. This shows itself as awe, the 
sense of mystery, reverence, love, and aesthetic apprecia- 
tion. These quotations will illustrate : F. ' I have an 
instinctive feeling that there is something higher and 
better than myself to revere. There has been a slow 
and steady growth in veneration and love for the one 
Spirit of Goodness/ M. * I never felt emotion of the 
kind others have. Sometimes a contemplation of the 
world, of humanity, and of the universe, awakens a 
sense of sublimity and infinity. This arouses awe 
and wonder at the mystery of life and of its unity. 
Sometimes this grows into a sense of the great world 
spirit in and through all things/ This out-going love 
finds its object just as frequently in love and helpfulness 
towards one's fellows ; in the pleasure of helping along 
the growth of human institutions. It is an indication, 
doubtless, of the complexity of the mental associations 
that are forming, especially in late adolescence and in 
early adult life, that the world outside presents itself as 
something not only grand and mysterious, but beautiful. 
The finer qualities of human life are idealised, the 
aesthetic side of external nature and of church forms 
and the like is the aspect which is most appreciated. 
This is well reflected in the following instance of a 
woman who professes not to have the usual religious 
feelings ; ' I am satisfied that I feel more serene in 
church than most Christians. I feel most reverent in a 
Catholic church, whether it is empty or during service; 
and more reverent in an Episcopal than in any other 
Protestant church. There are some things that call 
forth my feelings — a burial service, an eclipse of the 
sun, the sight of Niagara, the power of the ocean — these 
have moved me most/ It is not infrequent for the life 
outside of one to present itself in this way in a trans- 
figured form. 



326 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

It is far more common for the religious feelings to 
grow out of a sense of the relationship between the self 
and the whole. The relationship conceived takes every 
possible form, depending on whether the life outside is 
more vivid in consciousness or whether the fact of one's 
own life is more keenly appreciated. 

When the former condition obtains — that is, when 
the fact of God's greatness and majesty, and of man's 
smallness, is vividly felt, there results a distinct class of 
feelings, dependence^ humility and resignation. The 
character of this group is illustrated by the following 
quotations ; F, ' I lost myself in the recognition of 
freedom, power and love/ F. ' I feel my weakness and 
unworthiness ; I long for more strength.' F. ' Some- 
thing in me makes me feel myself a part of something 
bigger than I that is controlling/ M. l I feel a depend- 
ence on and an intimate relation to a power not my- 
self.' M. ' I have no confidence in myself or anything 
but God ; I have completely submitted to God's way.' 
During adolescence, as we saw, the fact that presented 
itself in the case of spontaneous awakenings and con- 
versions was that of the dawning of a new life within. 
But now that sense seems to give way, and gradually, 
as life advances, one awakens to the other fact, that the 
life of the whole is the more important; and consequently, 
as we shall see, the sense of dependence increases with 
years. One frequently finds in single instances evidences 
of the transformation in this respect. A woman who 
had passed through an adolescent upheaval in which she 
professed not to have a religion, writes, in regard to her 
present position ; ' God, immortality and freedom have 
more meaning to me now than ever before, not so 
theoretical as a few years ago, but nearer and more real, 
while the ego is now not so important' The feeling of 
dependence in the process of formation is clearly seen 
in the following instance of a young woman of 17: 'I 
cannot explain what I think of God; I cling to the idea 
because I find it a comfort in distress; it helps me to 
look up to something vastly superior to myself, morally 



ADULT LIFE— RELIGIOUS FEELINGS 327 

and intellectually. It is a comfort to me, so even if it 
is foolish, why should I give it up ? I must have some- 
one to pray to/ 

This last instance seems to show at the same time 
the raw material out of which another religious feeling 
develops, that of the sense of oneness with God, and of 
Divine Companionship. It centres in one of the deepest 
instincts of human life, the need for society, for com- 
panionship, for kinship. This instinct fully developed 
shows itself in unmistakable terms in such instances 
as the following : a woman writes, ' I have the sense of 
a presence, strong, and at the same time soothing, 
which hovers over me. Sometimes it seems to enwrap 
me with sustaining arms. God is a personal Being, who 
knows and cares for His creatures/ Another woman 
writes : ' I have often a consciousness of a Divine 
Presence, and sweet words of comfort come to me/ 

The sense of oneness and nearness shows itself in 
many ways, whether personal or impersonal, in which 
the essential thing is the feeling of close relationship 
between the self and the whole. These instances will 
illustrate: F. ' I feel the presence of Jesus in me as life, 
force and divinity/ F. ' I have a sense of the presence 
of a living God/ M. ' I have heightened experiences 
when God seems very near/ M. ' I have a sense of a 
spiritual presence in the world/ M. ' My soul feels 
itself alone with God, and resolves to listen to His 
voice in the depths of spirit. My soul and God seek 
each other. The sublime feeling of a presence comes 
over me/ 

Another feeling which grows out of this relationship 
, is that of faith and trust. F. ' Each year my faith is 
stronger and richer/ F. ' I have unquestioned assur- 
ance that what is pure, honourable and enlightened is 
best in harmony with the frame of things, and I need 
not see how/ F. ' When I pray, a sense of love and 
trust comes over me.' F. ' I do not understand, but I 
believe God/ M. ' After getting to work for Christ, my 
faith took strong hold/ This shades off into rest and 



THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

peace. A woman who had passed through several years 
of severe storm and stress and doubt, and suffered mis- 
fortunes, writes, when 44 : * I feel rest and security of soul.' 
f All of these groups of feelings taken together seem 
ko indicate that the condition underlying them is the 
organisation of life within the sphere of the higher 
mental activities. In terms of the nervous system, they 
may be said to imply that the personality has become 
identified with the association centres in the brain. 
The different phases of feeling are an index of greater 
or less success in living from the standpoint of highest 
association centres. Joy and spiritual exaltation are an 
expression of the fact that this final co-ordination of 
brain areas has been fairly completed. There is delight 
in the exercise of the higher psychic functions ; peace 
and rest are the natural consequence of the feeling of 
unity and wholeness that grows out of the complete 
unification of nerve elements.^ The stress and strain 
and tension that underlay the adolescent experiences 
has been relieved. There is no inhibition of the normal 
discharge of nervous energy. The functioning of life on 
this higher plane brings with it the awakening of ideas. 
Things are now seen in their relationships. In the 
intellectual sphere, one appreciates the unity of the 
world, and human life in its relationships to other 
physical realities ; in the social complex, one appre- 
ciates one's own life as one of the units in society ; so, 
in the realm of spiritual things, one feels oneself to be a 
part of a larger life. Human life is appreciated in its 
relationship to the life of God. The sense of oneness 
and divine companionship is the expression of the fact 
that life has had its birth into this larger world of spirit, 
and that it feels its kinship with the spiritual forces that 
exist. The most frequent accompaniment of this 
psychical awakening is the perception of the infinitude 
of the world-order, and a sense of humility and depend- 
ence on it. It appears that the deeper instinctive life 
is almost invariably carried up to the higher level ; the 
spiritual life is nearly always described in terms of 



ADULT LIFE— RELIGIOUS FEELINGS 329 

sense and of natural human relationships. One ' listens 
to God's voice in the depths of spirit/ Another's 
relationship to God is that of a son to a father; he 
carries into it the demands for kinship and intimacy. 
These things seem to indicate that the lower mental 
activities have been carried up into the higher complex. 

The evidence that this condition obtains is found only 
in its aptness in bringing unity into the diversity of pheno- 
mena. If one follows the development of religious feeling 
in its process of formation from youth toward maturity, 
the theory is reduced almost to a certainty. An experi- 
ence which is especially true for later adolescence and 
earlier maturity is that of yearning after the higher life, 
a striving after the life of spirit. It is the condition 
which we have noticed heretofore in which the different 
regions of the association-tracts in the brain are begin- 
ning to function, but function separately, which results 
in the feeling of incompleteness. The striving after the 
higher life is the struggle after a complete co-ordination 
of all the nerve elements on the higher level. A woman 
in whom not only her years but the character of her 
experience indicates an adolescent case, says : ' I yearn 
to realise more of the infinite.' Another woman, who is 
a very busy teacher, writes : ' I never seem to get up 
the lively experience I strive for; I have more need of 
contemplation, devotion and prayer.' A girl of 18 says : 
1 Sometimes when rushed at school I do not think of 
God enough, and that is bad for me ; then I go to Him 
and He comforts me.' The two latter experiences seem 
to be those of persons who are ripe for the fuller co- 
ordination of the higher brain areas, but in whom the 
rush and hurry of work and activity prevents its com- 
plete fruition. Still further back in the process is the 
experience of a girl of 17 : 'I have no heightened ex- 
periences, and cannot understand why people in books 
have them/ 

Again, a little further on the side towards complete 
success, is the case of a man of 26 who says : ■ I am 
emerging into a distinctly positive stage ; I have 



330 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

developed into the conviction of the essential religious 
nature of every human feeling, and have whole-souled 
sympathy for diverse humanity/ In this instance the 
manifoldness of the normal human activities and feelings 
has begun to be synthesised. This point of view helps 
to explain, perhaps, a case like the following of a woman 
of 26, who has already passed the normal time for 
spiritual awakening without complete success, and in 
whom the breach between the lower and higher 
levels is considerable, with the result that the two 
function separately. There is a constant irritation 
resulting from the separate functioning of the higher 
and lower centres, and from an organic craving for their 
unity. She says : ' I always try to speak kindly to others ; 
I try to do those things that would please God ; I have 
often struggled in prayer to know God's will. What 
troubles my conscience is that I do not take religion 
seriously enough. It is not so serious an affair with me 
as with most people. I often feel nearer to God and 
have a sense that He loves me better, after a cry over 
my sins. I like everybody and everything better after- 
wards/ The anomaly of not taking religion seriously 
enough and of crying over her sins seems to be the 
normal accompaniment of the physiological condition 
described. When the co-ordination has become com- 
plete, and one's whole being is reduced to a unity, when 
the deeper instincts express themselves freely, then we 
have an entirely different state of feeling ; there is a 
sense of living within the spiritual sphere. One person 
says : ' It seems to me that spirit talks to me/ We have 
cases like the above in which the ' soul feels itself alone 
with God, and listens to His voice in the depths of 
spirit/ or in which one feels the 'personality of Jesus as 
life, force and divinity/ 

This condition in its extremer forms is the one 
that is so often described in the lives of the mystics : 
one's consciousness is entirely absorbed in the all- 
sufficiency of the love of God that expresses itself 
through human personality. It is a condition that 



ADULT LIFE— RELIGIOUS FEELINGS 331 

often develops into a pathological tendency. The 
person falls into the . bottomless sea of instinct and 
seems to lose all connection with the world of sense. 
An instance of this in which there is apparently at 
least a close approach to abnormality is the following of 
a woman of 47 : ' I believe in the circulation of mind 
through corporate humanity as practically as I believe 
in the circulation of blood through the corporeal man. 
The sweet peace that follows the undefinable and un- 
utterable waves of sorrow that bruise the spirit assures 
me that a breach has been repaired, an offence con- 
doned, a sin blotted out, a balance adjusted for the 
common weal. Deep calleth unto deep. While man 
sins man must redeem. The bugbear of orthodoxy has 
long since vanished beyond the searchlight " I am." 
God is still creator. ... I would abide with the saints, 
I would go in and out of human hearts and sup with 
those I love. I would rear again the human temple 
and live the life of a world's conqueror. I would 
reveal the things unseen and unconceived to the 
lovers of God.' This case is analogous to the ex- 
treme sanctification experiences in which life has 
become completely organised from the standpoint of 
the higher brain areas, but has been partially cut off 
from its contact with the lower. Having pointed out 
the extremes in the possible relationship existing 
between the higher and lower areas — that on the one 
hand, in which the higher have never been aroused, and 
that, on the other hand, in which the higher have 
become over-developed, and have partially lost their 
connection with the lower — it is a matter of individual 
opinion to decide what is the mean between them which 
represents a normal condition. 

The relative prominence of the more characteristic 
types of feeling is shown in Table XXIX. The figures 
represent in percentages of the whole number of persons 
those who experienced the various feelings at the time 
of making the records. They stand in the table in the 
order of frequency. 



332 



THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 



Feelings. 


Female. 


Male. 




Per Cent. 


Per Cent. 


Dependence ...... 


27 


36 


Reverence ...... 


25 


37 


Oneness with God, Christ, etc. 


27 


29 


Faith 


17 


23 


Blessedness 


13 


13 


Peace 


7 


4 


Unclassified 


14 


20 


None 


5 


1 



Table XXIX. — Showing the absolute and relative prominence of 
religious feelings. 

The sense of dependence, humility, etc., stands at the 
head. This furnishes a partial justification for the 
tendency in vogue since Schleiermacher to define 
religion in terms of the sense of dependence and 
freedom. The freedom side of the definition, however, 
seldom finds corroboration in the records before us, at 
least not explicitly. If one were setting out to define 
religion, it would have to be borne in mind that several 
other feelings are about as prominent as dependence. 

The percentages in the column for males are larger 
than those for females. This may be taken to signify 
that men are more given to religious feelings than 
women. The inference is only true in part The 
feelings of the men are more numerous and more ex- 
plicit ; they are more clearly stated and the attempt 
to organise them was attended with far less difficulty 
and uncertainty. The real explanation of the differ- 
ence is to be found in the distinction tersely stated by 
Mr Coe that ' women feel more, while men feel more 
intensely.' 

We shall next inquire into any evidences which 
show the line of growth from childhood towards 
maturity. A partial answer to the question is found 
by comparing Table XVIII. on page 192, which repre- 
sents some facts of childhood religion, with the one 
above. Reverence, which almost never appears in 



ADULT LIFE— RELIGIOUS FEELINGS 333 

childhood religion, stands almost at the head in adult 
life. The sense of oneness with God or Christ and trust 
are prominent in both tables. Peace and spiritual 
exultation are also frequent later, but seldom occur 
during childhood. Dependence and humility in adult 
life appear to correspond somewhat to credulity and the 
tendency among children to use God for their own 
personal ends. Comparison of the two tables seems to 
show that the constant elements from childhood to 
maturity are dependence and the sense of oneness and 
faith. Fear is transformed, perhaps, into reverence, into 
which the childish familiarity with God is also changed. 
Peace and joy would appear to follow naturally on the 
unrest of adolescence. Spiritual exaltation among the 
adults, which presupposes a considerable degree of 
mental development, could not have been present in 
childhood. Only a small part of that group of feelings 
termed reverence, gratitude and love consisted of love 
which had any definite object. The spiritual attach- 
ments which are classed by the respondents as religious 
have apparently become so complex and abstract that 
they take the form of contemplation and reverence. 

The line of growth in regard to feeling was further 
studied by separating the cases into age-groups and 
comparing the prominence of the different types of 
feelings among those groups. The feelings which show 
the most distinct increase with age are dependence, 
reverence, oneness with God, and faith. The increase of 
the sense of dependence, for example, is represented in 
the following series of figures, which are the percentages 
of the persons in each age-group who describe their 
religious attitude in terms of this feeling : — 

13 27 27 33 50 
The advance with years among the men is not so 
clearly marked. It should be noted of these four 
groups of feelings which tend to increase during mature 
life that three of them, namely, dependence, sense of 
oneness, and faith, are those which were carried over 
from childhood. The fourth one, reverence, also has its 

23 



334 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

counterpart then in the sense of fear, the former being 
apparently the irradiation into a more spiritualised form 
of the latter. It is safe to say, provided the cases we 
are studying are typical, that the line along which 
religion grows, when represented in terms of feeling, is 
expressed as dependence, reverence, sense of oneness with 
God, and faith. These feelings represent the religious 
attitude which is not only carried over from childhood 
to maturity, but which increases with advancing years. 
They all express relation between the self and the 
larger life outside. This bears out the conclusions 
reached in the last chapter while discussing the nature 
of religious beliefs ; both feelings and beliefs indicate 
that the bottom truth of religion is that which centres 
about the relationship of the human being with God. 

It is a fact of no little interest that the number of 
religious feelings expressed increases in a marked way 
with age. Their frequency in each age-group is shown 
in the following diagram : — 



Age- 


16-19 


20-24 


25-29 


30-40 


40 and over. 


Female 


96 


126 


163 


131 


205 


Male 





65 


165 


175 


191 



During late adolescence it is evident that the number 
is relatively very small. About the end of adolescence 
they have increased, however, to almost the highest 
point reached, which is in the year-group from 40 years 
and over. Thus, in terms of feeling, we find a definite 
transition-period at the end of adolescence. It is 
explainable by the fact that later adolescence is the 
nascent period for readjustments. By summing up the 
number of beliefs expressed in Table XXVIII. on p. 320, 
it is evident that the number of beliefs among the later 
adolescents is nearly as great as that during any of the 
years following. Among the males, the number of beliefs 
between 20 and 25 is even greater than the number 
between 25 and 30, which exactly contradicts the line 
of growth in feeling. While the number of feelings 
increase from 95 to 165, the number of beliefs decrease 



ADULT LIFE— RELIGIOUS FEELINGS 335 

in about the same ratio. This point at which the 
transition occurs coincides with that which was desig- 
nated as the age of reconstruction, and marks the 
transition from a rational point of view of the world to 
a life of action. Adolescence is a period, as has been 
noticed, of great instability and uncertainty. A new 
personality is just beginning to take shape and form 
habits of its own. Now, at this later period, its point of 
view has become established and the person begins to 
live. Accompanying this change there naturally arise 
those feelings which express an attitude which has 
already become vital to the person. The fact that dur- 
ing adolescence there are comparatively few specific 
religious feelings expressed does not necessarily 
mean that in some form they are not present; a truer 
interpretation, doubtless, is that not until as late as the 
period of reconstruction do they become differentiated 
and separated from one another out of the organic 
mass of feeling that is surging up during youth, and 
take shape as specific, distinct feelings. Adolescence 
is an intensely formative period, and life does not take 
on its peculiar character until, say, the 25th year. 

When the four most dominant types of religious 
feeling are taken separately from the others and 
considered together, the peculiarities just noticed come 
out even more distinctly. There is a tendency for them 
either to culminate in frequency between the years 25 
and 30, or to rise at that period to as great prominence 
as during any of the later years. They rise to the 
greatest prominence during these years of greatest 
human vitality. The groups of feelings represented as 
joy, spiritual exaltation and peace, on the contrary, 
tend to culminate during the earlier and the later 
years. This bears out the conclusion that those four 
types of feeling which stood out above the rest are the 
ones which more distinctly belong to human life at its 
best. 

The number of persons in the doubt and reconstruc- 
tion group who recorded specific feelings was greater 



336 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

than that of the gradual-growth group by as much as 
the ratio of 10 to 7. This would seem to show that 
with those whose religion has once become partially 
objective and faith has been reconstructed, religion is 
fully as vital as with those whose growth has been 
uneventful. 



CHAPTER XXVII 

ADULT LIFE — MOTIVES AND PURTOSES 

The question was asked, ' What would you now be and 
do if you realised all your ideals of the higher life?' 
The replies were full and apparently given with the 
greatest frankness. In the organisation of the motives 
and purposes which inspire mature persons, we may 
hope to arrive at the most accurate picture, provided 
the respondents have been both honest and frank, of 
the trend of life from childhood toward maturity, and of 
the point or points toward which it is moving. 

In bringing the ideals together, they fall into several 
more or less distinct headings. These, in turn, seem to 
show in one way or another three great tendencies in 
growth. In the first place, there are those motives and 
purposes which have for their end the perfection and 
enlargement of the individual life, and which express 
the growth instincts that make for self-enlargement. 
Secondly, there are those motives, the purpose of which 
is to curb the individual life, and which express the 
tendency to hold in check the egoistic impulses that 
bring the individual out of harmony with social life. 
In the third place, there are the purposes that centre 
in the life outside of the self; they are the social and 
altruistic impulses, and grow out of the recognition of 
the fact that the self is only a small part of the larger 
whole, and that the individual will must be given up to 
subserve the interest ot the organism of which it is a 
part. The present chapter will be devoted to a simple 
elucidation of those three classes of motives, the rela- 



338 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

tionship they sustain among themselves, and their sig- 
nificance in religious development. 

The egoistic impulses show themselves in several 
different ways. The most prominent of these is the 
ideal of self-perfection, which seems to centre in the 
biological instinct of realisation of the fullest life. 
The way this shows itself is tersely illustrated in the 
following quotations : F. ' Where once I said, " I want 
to be good," I now say, " I want to develop, to improve, 
to grow strong." ' F. ' My one motive is to grow, not 
especially spiritually, but every way/ F. ' I would live 
an honest, upright, beautiful, sincere life.' M. ' I would 
build up a pure and unselfish character/ M. * I 
would lead such an open life that everybody would 
understand it, and it would be so pure and true that all 
who saw it would want to be like it/ The central thing 
in these impulses is that an ideal has been established, 
and that growth toward it has become an end in itself. 

A motive that is closely akin to the last is self 
expression. Back of it is pleasure in activity. One 
gets the best glimpse of this impulse in the uncouth and 
naive form in which some of the young girls express 
it. One says : ' My ideal is to be a woman of 30, beauti- 
ful in form and feature ; to have wonderful power with 
my voice; to be very rich, and use all my wealth for 
doing good/ Another says: 'If I realised my highest 
ideal, I would write a book like Thomas a Kempis or 
Helen Hunt's Ramona! Among the older persons this 
same impulse is found, but in a more refined form, and 
usually mingled with other motives. One man says : ' I 
would have a wide sphere of influence, provided the influ- 
ence be for good ; I desire to be loved, but am willing to 
be hated/ A woman writes : ' If I realised my ideal, it 
would be nothing radically different ; I would be a 
better wife and mother, I would be a tower of strength 
to the discouraged and suffering about me, and an 
inspiration to my friends to live a better life/ The 
pleasure in doing and achieving is certainly one of the 
deepest instincts of human life. It is the same impulse 



ADULT LIFE— MOTIVES AND PURPOSES 339 

that one sees in the play instincts of animals and in 
the manifold activities of human beings, in which the 
activity is not directed toward a definite end, but is an 
outlet of the over-supply of stored-up energy. In the 
religious sphere one finds the same instinct present, but 
expending itself in the direction of spiritual ends. 

Another motive somewhat like the last two is the 
impulse to know. A single sentence taken from each 
of several cases will be sufficient to illustrate this im- 
pulse. ' My ideal is to ascertain truth.' ' I am striving 
to ground my faith on known laws.' ' I would find all 
possible knowledge.' i A love of knowledge and a 
passionate zeal for right are central in my life.' ' My 
highest purpose is to know nature, to be true to it, and 
to utilise it.' Such instances occur most frequently 
between the years 20 and 25. It is natural that this 
should come at the most formative period of the 
rational life. In this respect the present group bears 
a close similarity to the one just above. That was an 
expression of the pleasure of activity in a general 
way, while underneath the impulse to know is the 
pleasure in self-expression along the intellectual line. 
This differs from the last, too, in being ego-centric. 
The last two expressed the expenditure of energy 
without being actuated by personal advantage, while 
the impulse to know represents the instinct to make 
conquest of the world and work it over as an individual 
possession. It is a psychical instinct which is analogous 
on the physiological side to the food-getting instinct. 
This ends that class of impulses which tend toward the 
enlargement of self. 

It is a fact of considerable significance that almost 
never is a distinctly ego-centric impulse mentioned as 
a religious motive. The nearest approach to it is the 
pleasure in intellectual conquest of the world noted 
above. There are, to be sure, two or three solitary 
instances of impulses in which the advantage of the 
individual seems to be the spring of action ; for ex- 
ample, a woman says : ' My one thought is to lead my 



340 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

children aright, and to be joined hereafter to those who 
have gone on before/ There is but one other instance 
in which the desire for future happiness — a selfish im- 
pulse put off a little into the future — is acknowledged 
as a religious motive. One other person says : * I would 
live so that people would think of me as having helped 
other people/ The fewness of instances of this sort is 
so conspicuous that it emphasises the fact that imme- 
diate personal ends are almost never present as a 
religious ideal. 

The counterpart of the general class of motives just 
described are those which tend to the curbing of the 
egoistic impulses. They imply that certain ones in 
the complex of self-assertive instincts have become 
disproportionate to the rest, and demand being held 
in check. They show the necessity of lopping off 
and plucking out exaggerated and harmful tendencies 
of self-activity which make the highest personal or 
social perfection impossible. The person has gained 
the power of standing outside his life and judging 
it ; of feeling within himself the strong, racial impulses 
that are likely to rupture the unity of his own being. 
These motives are shown in the craving for meekness, 
patience, sobriety, justice, honesty, cheerfulness, per- 
sonal purity and self-control. They are the ones most 
frequently mentioned. A number of them are shown 
together in the following instance of a man of 22, who 
says: * My highest purpose is to overcome the imper- 
fections of youth, to renounce worldly ambition. I 
have an ardent desire to be pure, and to attain a 
common-sense, patient and self-sacrificing life. I have 
now a chance to become rich, but it would mean 
spiritual death/ 

The demand for curbing egoistic instincts in one 
way or another works itself over into the abstract ideal 
of self-abnegation. In its extreme form this ideal is that 
expressed in the ascetic severities that at one time were 
regarded as among the highest virtues. It is sometimes 
expressed in religious songs, as, for example : ' Oh, to 



ADULT LIFE— MOTIVES AND PURPOSES 341 

be nothing, nothing, only to lie at His feet!' In the 
records before us the ideal of self-abnegation is not 
found in any instance in which it is held entirely 
apart from that of self-perfection or of helpfulness 
to others. The following extracts will illustrate : F. 
1 I would forget self entirely and spend my life in an 
unobtrusive way, in order to make the world better/ 
F. ' I would give up everything for others, and not 
count anything dear for the sake of doing good/ M. 
* My highest purpose is the utter abandonment of self 
for the welfare of others.' The way in which this be- 
comes an instinct, and tends to establish itself as an 
abstract ideal, is illustrated in the case of a woman who 
writes : * If I could only love my neighbour as myself! 
But that is a long way off, I fear/ This illustrates the 
impulse reduced to the second power. There is not so 
much a desire to help others as there is a desire for the 
desire. One source of this detached motive is doubt- 
less to be found in the fact that society sets certain 
standards of conduct, and so awakens the impulse in 
the individual to attain those standards before he has 
come upon them spontaneously himself. This fact 
explains frequently recurring instances like the follow- 
ing : 'If I could attain my ideal, it would be to have 
a stronger desire to save souls for Christ/ 

This leads us to consider the third large group of 
motives, those in which the end of conduct is found in 
society and in the spiritual life of which the person is 
a part. The transition to this point of view shows 
itself in three groups of ideals. 

In the first place, there are the motives in which the 
social instinct is especially strong and in which the end 
is the welfare of society rather than of the individual. 
They take shape in some form of helpfulness to others. 
F. * My ideal would be realised by a person who could 
be described by the one word unselfish' F. ' I would 
bring great happiness to all with whom I am brought in 
contact/ F. ' I would like to do favours for people, 
even those I do not care for/ M. ' My highest desire 



342 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

is to make others happy by administering to their needs.' 
M. ' My chief purpose is to work with God to bring it 
about that "good may fall at last to all." ' 

The same impulse in a more abstract and spiritual- 
ised form is expressed as the love and service of God. 
This is shown in such sentences as these : ' I would 
think of God and do good for His glory.' ' My one 
purpose is to do what God desires/ ' I have a deep 
desire to promote God's work/ ' My ideal is to love 
God and serve Him better/ These last two groups of 
motives are different from the self-perfection and self- 
expression ones in that they seek a more specific 
object, which object is found outside of immediate 
personal interests. 

Another impulse which likewise centres outside the 
limits of self is the desire for oneness with God. F. ' I 
would grow nearer God by every thought and action/ 
F. ' My chief purpose is to find God in every part of 
His universe/ M. ' I would get more and more in 
harmony with God's laws/ M. ' My desire is to fulfil 
God's purpose in me as a child of His/ Underlying 
this is the instinct for companionship. The same thing 
seems to underlie, although in an unexpressed form, 
the desire to help others ; these all seem to have their 
birth in the awakening of the social instinct. 

The relative prominence of some of these groups 
of motives is shown in Table XXX. The numbers 
represent the per cent, of all the persons giving ideals 
who mention the various ones. 

Foremost in frequency of all the ideals is helpful- 
ness to others; it is mentioned nearly twice as often as 
any other one. For the sake of comparison, we shall 
combine the motives helpfulness to others, oneness with 
God and service of God, and call them for convenience 
the altruistic group. We shall likewise combine those 
ideals which centre about self-perfection, self-expression 
and the desire for knowledge, and call them the self- 
enlargement group. It is evident that the former class 
somewhat exceeds the latter numerically. To the 



ADULT LIFE— MOTIVES AND PURPOSES 343 



altruist ic may fairly be added also those whose object 
is the curbing of self, since that is one of the clearest 
conditions of transferring the centre of interest from 
the self to the life outside of it. The inference is 
accordingly that the altruistic group of motives is 
a far more powerful factor in adult life than the ideal 
of self-enlargement, which perhaps arose earlier in 
racial development. 



Ideals. 



( Helpfulness to Others ...... 

■i Harmony with God ...... 

[To Love and Serve God ..... 

Christ ......... 

(Self-perfection 
Self-expression 
To know ........ 
Self-interest ....... 

/Self-abnegation ....... 

\ Specific Virtues . 

Altruistic Group 

Self-enlargement Group ..... 

Regulative Group (Self-abnegation and Specific 

Virtues) ....... 



Females. 



54 



Males. 



65 


52 


20 


19 


18 


9 


14 


18 


32 


4i 


10 


11 


6 


16 


3 


14 


20 


13 


34 


30 


103 


80 


5i 


82 



43 



Table XXX. — Showing the absolute and relative prominence of certain 
religious ideals. 

It would be unfair to say that the trend of life is 
simply away from the self-enlargement motives towards 
the altruistic. As a matter of fact, the evidence is 
pretty clear that both the self-enlargement and altruistic 
groups increase with years. If we separate the cases 
into age-groups, as we have been accustomed to do 
heretofore, the frequency of the two classes of motives 
in the different years is shown in the following 
diagram : — 

Age — 16-19 20-24 25-30 3S"4° 4° an d over. 



Self-perfection, F. 


29 


33 


44 


53 


55 


M. . 





7i 


28 


65 


42 


Altruistic, F. 


■ 87 


117 


94 


116 


140 


M. . 





81 


83 


59 


53 



344 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

In the case of women there is clearly an advance 
with years in respect to both types of motives. They 
appear to be supplementary ideals that run parallel. 
As the years advance, life is given over more and more 
not only to doing more but to being more ; it increases 
in fulness itself, and progressively enters into fuller and 
fuller relationship with the life outside of it. It is 
noticeable that both groups of motives decrease among 
the men with years; the same thing we found to be 
true in regard to the number of religious feelings 
expressed by them. The explanation of this seems to 
be that the ideals among the males are more keenly 
appreciated, and consequently more often recorded, 
during the earlier years than during the later. During 
the twenties, when these instincts are being awakened 
and becoming worked over into the personality as 
part of it, they have greater worth to consciousness 
than after they have become habitual. That the incre- 
ment is more constant among women is in line with 
what we have noticed repeatedly that they develop 
later on the spiritual side than do men in those respects 
which concern their conscious activity, and that they 
are furthermore more constant and even in their line 
of development than men. The point to be noticed 
in this connection is that the altruistic motives are more 
frequent in each instance than are the self-enlargement 
motives, and if we should take the women as a type, 
both the groups of ideals increase constantly with years. 

There are some lines of evidence which seem con- 
clusive that the trend of life is more and more towards 
altruism. In the record of childhood faults — records 
which are pretty fully given by the respondents — selfish- 
ness is greater than any other item among the girls and 
stands second among the boys. Taking all the faults 
which may be classed as distinctly egoistic, such as 
jealousy, anger, covetousness, pride, stealing, and the 
like, we find them to foot up 70 per cent, among the 
girls and 72 per cent, among the boys of all the child- 
hood faults mentioned. While these faults do not re- 



ADULT LIFE— MOTIVES AND PURPOSES 345 

present the religious cast of childhood, they nevertheless 
show those propensities which are strong, and away 
from which growth tends. If we notice among the 
adult motives the prominence of those which centre 
about the curbing of these same egocentric propensities, 
and that in only about 3^ per cent, of the cases does 
self-interest in any form appear ; if we notice further 
that the most prominent group of motives in adult 
life is the altruistic, it shows conclusively that from 
childhood to maturity the trend of life has been per- 
sistently away from the self-assertive, egocentric instincts 
towards those which are society-centered and God-centered. 
Another evidence that this is the common trend is 
found in the frequency in individual records with which 
there is a definite struggle to attain a life in which self- 
interest shall be swallowed up in the life of the whole. 
We find persons, especially in the younger years, hammer- 
ing away in one way or another at the limits which 
shut the personality in, and trying to break over them 
and escape. One young woman of 20 says : ' I would 
like to be good and true through and through ; with 
purer motives, and thinking only of God and doing 
good for His glory. I wish I were not conceited. I 
should like never to think of self at all. I should like 
to be a foreign missionary.' A woman of 74, who had 
been actuated during earlier life by the ideal of self- 
perfection, says of her later development, which came 
when she was 43 : 'I got out of the prison of self, and 
took my stand in the objective universe/ She further 
writes, speaking of her purposes : ' I would work out the 
welfare of the race, not with fear and trembling, but 
with serene hope and assurance.' A woman of 22 says : 
1 I would receive every trouble, disappointment, pain 
and temptation as a true opportunity and blessed 
occasion of dying to self and of entering into fuller 
fellowship with my self-denying, suffering Saviour. I 
would recognise with delight all generous, beautiful 
actions, and all good qualities, even of my bitterest 
opponents.' This statement bears in it the evidence 



346 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

of a previous struggle to break down the limitations of 
self. Christ, to her mind, who clearly represents her ideal 
of attainment, is pictured as a self-denying, suffering 
Saviour. In the desire to recognise the good qualities 
of her bitterest opponents there is evidence that a 
barrier has been surmounted, and with no little diffi- 
culty, and that this has carried her life on to a con- 
siderable distance in the direction it has come. Sure 
enough, when we come to examine the case, we find it 
to be a person whose life during earlier years had been 
filled with intense struggles. She says : ' They grew out 
of selfishness and jealousy. Nature had favoured my 
sisters with pow r ers and attainments which excelled my 
own ; this aroused in me most bitter feelings against 
God and His injustice to me. I became unruly and 
unlovable. I finally realised that I needed more than 
human help ; it drew me to seek peace in the religious 
life. My real change of character began when I was 16. 
I took a class in Sunday school, sang in the choir, 
and set up ideals and made great struggles to live up to 
them/ While there are many instances in the records 
before us of growth away from the self-perfection ideal 
towards the altruistic, there are no accounts of a 
development in the opposite direction. It is safe to 
lay it down with a high degree of emphasis that in this 
growth from that class of motives which centre in self 
towards those which find their spring of action in the 
organised life outside of the self, we have one of the 
most fundamental lines of development. 

Usually we find them existing side by side, as in 
the following instance, recorded by a woman of 38 : 'I 
would be just myself, only with more patience, less 
selfishness, greater sense of God's friendliness to me, 
and arrive at the true union of the service of God and 
man.' One sees in this case the fusion of the self- 
enlargement, self-abnegation, and altruistic motives. 

The ideal striven after is often found in a person 
whose life is admired. A girl writes : ' If I realised my 
ideal, I would be just like my mother, making everyone 



ADULT LIFE— MOTIVES AND PURPOSES 347 

happy, and doing all for the glory of God.' The per- 
sonality of Christ is frequently the embodiment of the 
ideal. F. ' My highest aim is to follow Christ's teach- 
ing/ F. * I am trying to follow Christ's life as nearly 
as I can in all its glorious self-abnegation, its wondrous 
purity, and marvellous helpfulness.' M. ' I have no 
definite ideal aside from Christ.' This type bears close 
kinship both to the self-expression group of motives 
and to those which strive after oneness with God. 

If we glance at the growth from childhood to youth 
and on through maturity, we find in it a constant 
element running throughout, namely, that factor which 
is the outgrowth of the deep-seated racial instinct of 
self-preservation. In childhood we find a propensity 
for self-assertion and self-indulgence ; among the child- 
hood faults which were mentioned these were frequent. 
Sexual temptations stand first among the evils from 
which the boys have grown and are striving still to free 
themselves. Other forms of faults of this type are 
drinking, stubbornness, sauciness, lying, wilfulness, re- 
vengefulness and ill-temper. These are all branches 
running out this way and that from the instincts of 
self-preservation, self-defence and self-enlargement. In 
mature life we find these transformed and spiritualised 
into the impulse to be all that it is in one's power to 
become as a spiritual being ; to exercise one's fullest 
power ; to conquer and work over into one's own life 
the most possible of the intellectual and spiritual worlds. 
We find that the impulse towards self-expression, thus 
spiritualised and transformed into a religious motive, 
not only persists through the rest of life, but even 
increases. This, then, seems to be one of the great 
streams of religious development, to give those deeper 
racial instincts which are consistent with self-development 
and the development of society the fullest possible expres- 
sion, and gradually to transform and enlarge them into 
spiritual forces. 

Running parallel with this is another line of growth 
which is likewise constant throughout life ; indeed it is 



348 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

not only the accompaniment, but the very condition of 
the tendency we have just noticed. It is the exercise of 
the curbing or regulative impulse, zvhich keeps the egoistic 
instincts within their proper range and in harmonious 
relationships with each other. The fact that the egoistic 
impulses in childhood, when over emphasised, are de- 
scribed as faults, shows that they are that away from 
which growth tends. In most instances the way in 
which and the time at which these were set aside is 
given by the respondents. The prevalence of the 
* sense of sin ' during adolescence, occurring as it does 
in the majority of the cases, whether there has been 
actual waywardness or not, is doubtless a complex of 
the same impulse. All the little imperfections are 
asserting themselves, and are felt as an organic tend- 
ency. Along with the dawning of rational and spiritual 
insight one gains the power to look back on these, and 
to feel a higher life, which can only be attained by the 
overcoming and crushing out of the complex of tend- 
encies that make up the imperfect self. So that, in a 
very true sense, the whole adolescent stress may be 
viewed as a clash between the higher and lower selves 
in which the crisis is brought about through the activity 
of this curbing and regulative impulse. We have found 
that this continues throughout adult life, and expresses 
itself in many virtues, such as patience, honesty, purity, 
self-control, and the like, each of which becomes trans- 
parent, and shows beneath it some impulse trying to 
assert itself. During maturity this motive becomes 
complex and refined, and is shown in the abstract ideal 
of self-abnegation. Mr Marshall, in his analysis of re- 
ligion from the biological standpoint, arrives at a similar 
conclusion in regard to this element of religion. He 
says : ' The function of religion which lies back of its 
ceremonial is the suppression of the force of individual- 
istic, elemental impulses in favour of those which have 
higher significance/ 1 Again he says: ' It will appear 

1 Henry Rutgers Marshall, Instinct and Reason, New York and 
London, 1898, p. 297. 



ADULT LIFE— MOTIVES AND PURPOSES 349 

upon examination that the various groups of religious 
expression which we shall examine tend to produce 
the suppression of individualistic reaction, and lead us 
to listen for the guiding voices within us/ 

That direction of religious development first noticed 
above, which concerns the transition from the egoistic 
point of view to that which regards the life outside as 
the centre of activity, is in reality simply a transition 
from youth to adult life ; it represents the second great 
step in the line of growth from childhood towards 
maturity. In order to complete the picture, it should be 
borne in mind that the central fact which marked the tran- 
sition from childhood was the birth of religious self-con- 
sciousness, a necessary step in the acquisition of the ability 
to refer spiritual experiences to the ego, and to appreciate 
religion from within. Back of this was the life of child- 
hood, in which the world was looked upon purely as an 
external fact ; there was not yet the ability to appreciate 
the self as even a factor in its own experiences. This 
has become one of the most commonly recognised facts 
in regard to childhood experience. Miss Miles, for 
example, in her study of reminiscent experiences, says : 
1 The predominant direction of the mind of the child is 
shown by the fact that 70 show attention to the outside 
world, and only 27 to self. Even when the child thinks 
of himself, he is more apt to regard himself as a victim 
of sensation than as an agent in bringing things to 
pass/ 1 In our study of the religion of childhood, it was 
evident that the child's religious experiences were 
viewed as objective. God was a being external to 
itself and above it, dwelling in the sky. The most pro- 
nounced feature of its religion was that which involved 
its relationship to this Being, expressed usually in the 
most concrete and objective terms. The most marked 
characteristic of adolescence, on the contrary, was the 
breaking away from religion as something external. 
New life wells up within the consciousness of the youth, 

1 Miss Caroline Miles, * A Study in Individual Psychology,' American 
Journal of Psychology, Vol. VI., p. 554. 

24 



350 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

and this either surges above the threshold of conscious- 
ness as a clearly appreciated spiritual product, or makes 
itself felt as opposing currents of life in the undefined 
sphere of feeling. Out of it all is born the clear con- 
sciousness of a self which is an organ for the expression 
of spiritual life. 

And now comes the third step, which we have 
already noticed, in which the person's consciousness 
of the world-order is aroused, and he appreciates the 
relationships existing between part and part — feels 
that his own personality is only a small fraction of the 
larger life. He transfers the centre of his activity to the 
life of the whole. His most prominent motive is to live 
in the lives of other persons, and to lose his life in love 
and service, in unison with God. 

There are, consequently, in this aspect of religious 
growth, three great steps in development : — First, that 
in which religion is viewed externally ; secondly, that 
in which the centre of activity is one's own personality ; 
and thirdly, that in which the centre of activity again 
becomes objective. The growing individual tends to 
obtain a knowledge of himself as a spiritual personality, 
and to gain control of himself as a unit in society, and 
then to give himself back again as an organic part of 
the world-life. 



PART I IJ 

COMPARISON OF THE LINES OF GROWTH 
WITH AND WITHOUT CONVERSION 



CHAPTER XXVII I 

THE LINE OF GROWTH FOLLOWING CONVERSION 

We finally require to bring together the most salient 
facts and principles adduced in the foregoing chapters, 
and see them in their relationships. Before doing this, 
we shall turn to a brief survey of the later development 
of those persons who have experienced conversion. The 
conclusions already reached will be either verified or 
limited as laws of growth of universal application by 
what we find true in regard to this other class of persons. 
When we have ascertained the likenesses and differences 
between these two types of religious growth, we shall be 
able to turn with somewhat fuller knowledge to a con- 
cise statement of the line of development from childhood 
toward maturity. 

In taking up the study of those lines of growth 
which persons pass through after conversion, we shall 
hope not only to arrive at a more complete compre- 
hension of the trends of religious development, but 
shall, at the same time, have a means of determining 
more adequately than was possible in the analysis of 
the crisis itself, the nature of conversion. We shall 
apply to it this test, What is the effect of conversion 
on after-development ? What new factors are turned 
loose in consciousness which vary the line of growth 
from that through which persons seem to pass whose 
development has been more gradual ? For example, 
are these persons freed from the storm and stress, struggle, 
anxiety and doubt that so frequently attend the progress 
of those whom we have just been studying? Toward 



354 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

the end of individual development, do they come out 
with the same general attitude toward life, and with a 
similar appreciation of spiritual things ? 

In the comparison of the two groups there are some 
conclusions that we can safely leave behind us as fairly 
well established. We have found that conversion, viewed 
simply from the standpoint of its immediate significance, 
was in no sense a unique phenomenon, but that, in its 
most essential aspect, it was a sudden outburst of 
religious life and awakening to spiritual insight. It has 
its correspondence in gradual growth. The character of 
the experiences in the one group and in the other shade 
off into each other by imperceptible gradations, and 
correspond in the time at which they occur. The sense 
of sin and that of imperfection we have found to attach 
themselves to no theological doctrine, but to be the natural 
outgrowth of the developmental processes which are going 
on during adolescence. The result which seemed to be 
attained in conversion, and that which was working itself 
out during adolescence among those persons who have 
not experienced conversion are at bottom essentially the 
same, namely, the birth of human consciousness on a 
higher spiritual level. This is attended by the awaken- 
ing of a fuller and keener self-consciousness, and at the 
same time, by the birth of a social instinct, which leads 
the person to reach out and feel his life one with that of 
the larger social, institutional and spiritual worlds. 
With these likenesses in view, the question narrows 
itself down mainly to this, To what extent is the result 
which seems to be reflected in conversion fully reached ? 
Is it simply the opening-up of an ideal that has to be 
actualised — a vivid foretaste of a life that may become 
one's own — or does the person actually attain the new 
life at the instant of conversion, and immediately begin 
living on an indefinitely higher plane of existence? 

Unfortunately, the persons whose experiences we 
studied in Part I. were not asked for their post-conver- 
sion development. However, Miss Fannie E. Johnston, 
a student in my seminary, has brought together one 



LINE OF GROWTH FOLLOWING CONVERSION 355 

hundred autobiographies of persons who have experi- 
enced conversion, and has made, under my direction, a 
special investigation of the line of post-conversion 
growth. The records were written in response to a 
special list of questions which call out in considerable 
detail the experiences at conversion, those immediately 
following, and the development since conversion. The 
cases used are in most respects comparable to those 
used in the study of conversion itself in Part I. ; they are 
usually persons reared in favourable religious surround- 
ings, and are well distributed as to vocation and condition 
in life. Just as in the groups we have already studied, 
there are rather too many college-bred people among 
the number for them to be entirely representative. 
There is this single marked difference, that of the cases 
we are now studying, somewhat more than one-half 
belong to the Methodist denomination ; as for the 
remainder, there is a good sprinkling of nearly all of the 
other Protestant sects. The nature of the conversion 
phenomena themselves in these cases does not differ inany 
respect which demands special consideration from those 
which furnished the basis of the study of conversion in 
Part I. The persons usually experienced at conversion 
the same sense of joy, peace and contentment as did 
those we have studied heretofore. After conversion they 
almost invariably set out with new and high resolves ; 
their attitude towards life had been transformed ; in the 
presence of the new life old habits had apparently 
passed away, new interests and enthusiasms had been 
awakened ; motives and purposes had been purified, 
higher ideals aroused ; frequently the personality 
seemed entirely changed. 

But when we follow up the events which mark the 
trend of life after conversion, the crucial question we 
have just raised is almost directly answered, for we find 
that nearly all the persons are sooner or later beset with 
the same difficulties that ordinarily attend adolescent 
development. Indeed, the percentage of those diffi- 
culties in this group of persons is slightly greater than 



3S 6 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

in the case of those whose growth was not attended 
by conversion. While in this latter group there were 
80 per cent, of the women and 89 per cent, of the 
men who had storm and stress or doubt, in the cases we 
are now studying there are 93 per cent, of the women 
and J J per cent, of the men who had similar experiences. 
The immediate conclusion which might be drawn from 
these statistics is that conversion fails of its purpose, and 
has no marked effect on after-development. Before we 
settle on an interpretation, however, of its significance, 
we must look more minutely at the nature of the experi- 
ences which follow conversion, as compared with those 
which occur under other conditions. We must likewise 
take into consideration that we are dealing with a class 
of persons who are temperamentally different. We have 
found that they are more susceptible to external in- 
fluences, and more impressionable by suggestion. Con- 
sequently, we have to keep constantly before our minds 
the question as to how these persons would have 
developed in the absence of conversion — presumably 
they would naturally have shown greater irregularities 
than would those who were less open to impressions. 

If we proceed to consider the nature of the struggles 
which follow conversion, we find at the same time many 
similarities and many differences between these and the 
usual adolescent difficulties. In Table XXXI. are shown 
some of the types of the post-conversion struggles, 
together with the percentages of their frequency in each 
of the sexes. 

In the first place, we should notice that complete 
relapses are few, whereas periods of inactivity and in- 
difference are numerous ; in fact, with women, these latter 
are the rule. Those experiences classed in the table 
as relapses correspond fairly to complete alienation in 
the cases studied in Part II., whom we shall, for con- 
venience, call the non-conversion group. They represent 
the tendency for persons to feel themselves aloof from 
the religious interests of other people. If we recall the 
fact that more than a third of the non- conversion cases 



LINE OF GROWTH FOLLOWING CONVERSION 357 

have passed through a more or less definite period of 
alienation, and note that only about 6 per cent, of the 
conversion group have completely relapsed, we have 
one of the most important differences between the two 
types. While the religions difficulties which follow con- 
version are rather more frequent than those which other- 
wise accampany adolescent growth, the instances ai'e far 
less numerous among the conversion-group of complete 
alienation from conventional standards. In other words, 
the persons who have passed through conversion, having 
once taken a stand for the religious life, tend to feel 
themselves identified with it, no matter how much their 
religious enthusiasm declines. 



Post-Conversion Struggles. 


Females. 


Males. 


1. Complete Relapses .... 

2. Periods of Inactivity and Indifference . 

3. Struggles with Old Habits . 

4. Struggles to Attain an Ideal. 

5. Storm and Stress 

6. Storm and Stress, including 3 and 4 

without duplication .... 

7. Doubts 

8. Any of above without duplication 


Per Cent. 

5 

65 
26 

33 
3* 

So 
33 
93 


Per Cent. 
7 
30 
32 
15 
35 

62 

57 
77 



Table XXXI. — Showing the frequency and nature of the post-conversion 

struggles* 



The periods of inactivity and indifference seem to be 
the outgrowth of a natural tendency of human interests 
to ebb and flow. Nervous energy, when directed vigor- 
ously in a certain way, completely expends itself, and 
must then have a period of recuperation. Rhythms in 
the supply of available energy are coming to be a 
universally recognised phenomenon. If, w T ith the proper 
apparatus, one tries continuously to lift a weight with 
one finger at successive intervals of a second, one can 
lift it to a less and less distance, until finally it cannot be 
lifted at all. But suddenly the ability to perform the 



358 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

work is almost fully regained, and it continues to come 
and go at intervals. The same fluctuations are true in 
regard to the higher mental activities. One of the stock 
experiments on fluctuations of the attention illustrates 
in a concrete way the general principle. If a watch is 
placed at such a distance that the ticking can just be 
heard with strained attention, the sound of the ticking 
comes and goes with rhythmical regularity. The 
commonly accepted explanation is that the nerve-cells 
involved in the act of attention must have time to 
recuperate. ' When a cell has exploded, it must have 
time to recover ; it cannot explode again until it has 
been recharged. That is why attention is interrupted, 
why we can attend only for a few seconds at a time. 
The spurts of the attention-wave correspond to the 
successive discharges of cortical cells/ 1 

In this instance we have a specific illustration of 
what is true for any sort of mental activity. Spells of 
depression are likely to come at the close of a very busy 
day. With the breaking of a fever the physician has 
to guard against a sudden variation to the opposite 
extreme. In these well-known facts we have doubt- 
less a parallel to the variation in religious feeling. 
Almost invariably the subjects who are active in 
religious work have ups and downs in their degree of 
religious enthusiasm. One of them seems to have had 
for several years wave-like fluctuations of religious 
interest at pretty regular intervals of two years. 
Another, a woman of 40, writes : ' My religious ex- 
perience has been a succession of waves or pulsations 
following each other in quite regular order. Indif- 
ference and inactivity are always followed by self- 
examination. At such times disgust is stronger than 
regret. Then follows the effort to regain the lost ground, 
and as a result arise renewed enthusiasm, heightened 
activity, and fresh devotion to religious work. But it 
seems impossible to hold myself to the high-tide mark.' 
In her personal attachments this person shows the same 

1 E. B.Titchener, A Primer of Psychology, p. 91, New York, 1898. 



LINE OF GROWTH FOLLOWING CONVERSION 359 

fluctuations as in her religious attitude. One is doubt- 
less to look for the explanation of such instances as 
the following in the rhythms in the supply of nervous 
energy. A woman who had been converted at 14, who 
had before conversion had struggles with an ' uncon- 
trollable temper/ and at the time of conversion wept 
and felt very joyous, says of her later development : ' I 
had a period of introspection at 17 caused by over- 
enthusiasm. Religion was on my mind so constantly 
that my nervous system gave way. I had a feeling of 
despair, and longed to die.' It is the rule, and to be 
expected that after the great enthusiasm of conversion 
there should follow a decline. 

The duration of the enthusiasm and the period of 
the ebb of feeling vary greatly with different individuals. 
This seems to be conditioned by the nervous constitu- 
tion of different persons. It has been found by experi- 
ment that scarcely two persons have the same fatigue 
curve. Some are exhausted quickly with slight ex- 
penditure, while others have great endurance under 
great exertion. So, in religious feeling, the enthusiasm 
aroused at conversion continues, according to individual 
differences, all the way from a few hours to several 
years. 

Sometimes the rise and fall in religious feeling seems 
to attach itself to other natural rhythms. One person 
reports that during five successive years he was awakened 
to a religious enthusiasm during the winter, which de- 
clined in the summer. Malling-Hansen has established 
the fact of a yearly rhythm in growth. In his tests on 
children, he ascertained that physical growth is greatest 
during the autumn months, less from December to the 
end of April, and that there is a minimal period from 
the end of April to the end of July. Almost the whole 
weight gained from December to April is lost during 
the minimal period. 1 The rise in religious feeling during 
the winter may be conditioned in part by the more rapid 

1 P. Malling-Hansen, Perioden im Gewicht der Kinden und in dcr 
Sonnenwarme, Kopenhagen, 1886, p. 64. 



360 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

metabolic changes going on in the organism at that 
time. There is an unconscious recognition of this prin- 
ciple in the fact that religious revivals are almost always 
held during the winter. 

The true understanding of so-called f back-sliding' — 
a very common phenomenon — is to be found in part in 
the principle of the natural fluctuations of religious feel- 
ing. In the first publication of the Study of Conversion, 
an attempt was made to classify the cases according to 
their degree of permanence. That has been found since 
to be a futile effort. It is more fair to say that the 
instances arrange themselves in a series from the few at 
the one extreme in which there was complete relapse to 
those, at the other, in which there was a slight ebb of 
religious ardour. Although a large proportion of the 
respondents admit a lack of constancy in the warmth of 
their enthusiasm, there are almost none (about 6 per 
cent.) of these who do not maintain at the same time 
that their religious status was little affected. One 
woman, who reports that through the influence of a 
sceptical husband her religious activity for a time com- 
pletely ceased, and she was thrown into a period of 
indifference and introspection, maintains that her ' faith 
never waned.' A man of 35, who, after his conversion 
at 19 had passed through both doubt and storm and 
stress, says : ' I have never given up in the least degree 
my religious faith/ From what has been said it would 
appear that the effect of conversion is to bring with it a 
changed attitude toward life which is fairly constant and 
permanent, although the feelings fluctuate. It is as if the 
new nerve-connections in the association-centres of the 
brain, with which the personality is now identified, had 
become somewhat permanently fixed ; but the flow of 
nerve energy were intermittent, and sometimes were not 
sufficient in intensity to awaken a simultaneous response 
in the sympathetic and vaso-motor systems. In such 
times of low tension the nervous discharges are sufficient 
to make themselves felt in consciousness, but not intense 
enough to overflow into the motor areas. One is accord- 



LINE OF GROWTH FOLLOWING CONVERSION 361 

ingly not only indifferent, but inactive in the direction 
of the new life. 

We must not make too much of the principle of 
fluctuations of feeling, however, as an explanation of 
the difficulties that follow conversion; there are other 
causes equally as apparent. An important one among 
these is the persistence of old habits, which for the time 
have lost their force and have become hidden from view 
in the presence of the new lines of activity. When, after 
a time, the newly-acquired enthusiasm has partly died 
away, these old habits re-assert themselves. From the 
table we observe that more than one-fourth of the 
women and about one-third of the men are disturbed 
after conversion by the persistence of old habits. This 
general type of experience is well illustrated in the 
following case of a man converted at 20. His awaken- 
ing was sudden and spontaneous after several years of 
conflict with evils and imperfections and aspiration 
toward a higher life. In describing the feelings imme- 
diately following conversion, he says : ' I had a liberty, 
a freedom, a joy that I had not before. My general 
health at once improved. I at once began to study the 
best books, to seek /or the best things, to plan to be 
something for God. I read the Bible with more delight, 
I wanted others to know that I was a Christian. I 
worked hard, played hard, did everything with enthusi- 
asm and reason for the glory of my Master. I thought 
all sin was killed. I thought I could be tempted with 
anything and yet not feel the temptation. I thought 
sin would never live again in me. I loathed impurity ; 
my desires and aspirations were for the purest of the 
pure/ Writing of his present experience, some ten 
years later, he says : * But I have found since and find 
now that sin is very much alive, and I have a constant 
struggle to keep it down. Laziness, sluggishness, low 
grovelling desires, the old impure images and fancies, 
the remembrance of the past still haunts me. I have 
never doubted that a change then took place in my life, 
although I have doubted the. explanation of it/ The 



362 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

condition underlying the necessity of having to fight the 
old battles over again is clear. The habits of early life, 
which have cut out deep channels in the nervous system, 
and have left their impression there, are still easy out- 
lets for the discharge of nervous force, provided it is not 
drafted off along new channels. The moment the 
enthusiasm declines and the tension which holds life 
steady and firm in the newly-acquired channels is re- 
laxed, one falls back into the old modes of activity. 
This aspect of the adolescent conflict represents the 
incongruity between the old nerve-tracts, which corre- 
spond to the habits that have at one time been forsaken, 
and the new lines of nervous activity, which have not 
yet become thoroughly established. As we shall see, 
the tendency is for the effort to continue until the new 
set of neural habits, that correspond to the conduct of 
life on a spiritual plane, have become so deeply in- 
grained that life expresses itself naturally and easily 
through them. When this is accomplished the old 
habits have lost their force. 

If this physiological point of view is a true one, it 
should bring to our mind with the greatest emphasis 
some points of practical importance in regard to the 
post-conversion period. The nerve-tracts involved in 
the old life are perhaps structurally as much a part of 
the person's make-up just after conversion as are his 
arms or legs. They may cease to exist as functioning 
organs in either of two ways ; they may be completely 
taken up into the new centres and co-ordinated with 
them, or left empty because nervous energy is all 
expended in other ways. In either case, the old neural 
channels are still there to assume their former functions 
the moment the new are off guard. The old may cease, 
but only by becoming hopelessly enslaved and sub- 
ordinated to the new, or by withering up and dying for 
want of exercise. 

The futility of expecting a new insight to become 
permanent, however genuine it may be, without follow- 
ing it up with conduct that works the new life over into 



LINE OF GROWTH FOLLOWING CONVERSION 363 

neural habit, is apparent on the face of it. The new 
must be drilled in as indelibly as was the old. The 
Salvation Army has caught the secret of it. They set 
the convert, by every means available, to the task of 
cultivating nervous discharges in the brain areas con- 
nected with the spiritual life. He is to make the higher 
life habitual. He is to get it ingrained into his very 
structure. He pounds it in while beating a drum ; he 
walks it in while marching; he sings it, talks it, acts it 
out in deeds of service ; and all this so persistently that 
it is finally a part of himself. He has finally cast out 
the evil with the good. 

Another form of adolescent struggle which is given 
in the table is that due to a sense of incompleteness. 
It occurs in 33 per cent, of the women and 15 per cent, 
of the men. It is a phenomenon which bears the same 
general interpretation as does that of the struggle with 
habits. It is the general and organic experience of 
which habit is the specific. The struggle with habits is 
the recognition of the conflict between some bit of the 
old life and the new ; the feeling underlying the sense 
of incompleteness is that life in toto is evil, and sets 
itself in conflict with the ideals awakened at the time of 
conversion. It should be noticed that the struggles with 
habit are more common with the men, while the sense 
of incompleteness is more than twice as frequent among 
the women. This is in accordance with the sex-differ- 
ences which have been pointed out all the way along. 
The sense of incompleteness, or the struggle after an ideal, 
which follows conversion, is not different in kind from 
that which precedes conversion, nor from what we have 
found to belong to adolescent development among the 
non-conversion group. The fact of its prominence after 
conversion helps to demonstrate that conversion, which 
usually comes in early adolescence, has only opened up 
the possibility of real development on the spiritual plane. 
Conversion is most frequently an awakening to some 
truth ; but it is a truth which is yet only perceived and 
has not yet been worked over into conduct. It remains 



364 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

for the person to make at least a fraction of the ideal a 
part of himself — to grow towards it. This seems to be 
the function of the several years of adolescent insta- 
bility — to enable the youth to keep on trying in the 
direction of the higher life until it is made habitual. 

The storm and stress experiences which follow con- 
version are not different in kind from those with which 
we have already become familiar, and need no further 
illustration. The point of interest for us is that they 
occur even more frequently by about 10 per cent, in each 
of the sexes among the persons who have experienced 
conversion than among the others. One may look for 
the causes underlying this difference in several directions. 
In the first place, it seems to be due to the fact, as has 
already been pointed out, that the conversion group are 
persons who are more suggestible, more impressionable, 
and, accordingly, more liable to undergo mental crises. 
The difference seems to be due in part, likewise, to the 
fact that at conversion the ideal life and the past life are 
brought into definite conflict. There is a sharper cleav- 
age between the higher and lower selves ; an ideal is 
established which is more difficult to attain because of 
its great incongruity with the old life. The person is 
suddenly expected to identify himself with the conven- 
tional ways of the churches, which are at variance with 
his usual habits of life. It seems natural, if these causes 
obtain, that the conflict and friction in the adjustment of 
life to the new standard should be greater in the case of 
the conversion type. 

While storm and stress is relatively more frequent 
after conversion than in the non-conversion group, 
doubts, on the other hand, are much less frequent; 
they occur in 38 per cent, of the women and 57 per cent, 
of the men. The fact that they are fewer seems to 
indicate that when the person has already publicly 
identified himself with religious matters, doubt and 
rejection is a more serious step ; also that when the 
person is kept active in religious performance there is 
not so great opportunity to stop and weigh matters of 



LINE OF GROWTH FOLLOWING CONVERSION 365 

doctrine. Still, it should be observed that the per- 
centages are large. They seem to indicate the difficulty 
of complete mental assimilation of religious doctrines. 
The young convert has usually given his assent to the 
theological teachings with which he is now identified, 
in a purely emotional way, and not as the result 
of having weighed them intellectually. In order to 
make them really his own, he must pass through the 
process which is involved in mental assimilation of any 
kind. He must hold them off, and perceive them and 
weigh them, and then accept them in so far as they can 
fit into his own mental make-up. This is the same 
mental procedure, usually extending through several 
years, which we found to belong normally to the period 
of adolescence, namely, that the individual must appre- 
ciate and assimilate * those modes of thought and life 
which belong to the social whole. 

We have now passed in review some of the charac- 
teristic difficulties that follow conversion, and found 
them to be exactly the same in kind, although there are 
some marked differences in degree, as those which are 
experienced in the absence of conversion. We should 
notice one other marked similarity, that in both groups 
the spiritual difficulties are limited to about the same 
years. They come most frequently in the middle period 
of adolescence, during the late teens, less frequently in 
the early twenties, and almost never after 30. In only 
6 per cent, of the cases do the troubles intensify after 25 
years of age. 

This is further evidence which tends to set adoles- 
cence off as a distinct stage in growth, and to demon- 
strate that events of the particular nature we have 
found all along in the study of adolescence belong to 
this period, whether conversion occurs or not. That 
these experiences belong to adolescence was further 
borne out in this way : the number of conversions in 
both sexes were separated into two groups according to 
age ; in the first group were included the females under 
13 and the males under 15 ; in the second group, those 



366 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

above these ages. This made a nearly equal number of 
males and females in each group. It was found that 
storm and stress and doubt occurred during adolescence 
with just about the same frequency among those who 
were converted early as among those whose conversion 
took place within the years of greater maturity. It 
appears that, in either event, whether conversion comes 
early or late, it is the beginning of a process of growth, 
a first insight into a life which has to be appropriated 
and assimilated and worked over into conduct. 

This much is clear to the present point, that while 
the events that occur in the process of spiritual readjust- 
ment in the two types of growth are identical in character, 
the persons who experience conversion continue to feel 
themselves identified with religion to a greater degree ; 
they are less likely to become alienated from it, and to 
look upon it objectively, as is shown in the infrequency 
of complete relapses and the relative fewness of sceptical 
doubts. Whether or not this is a wholesome tendency 
must be left until we come to consider the present 
status of the two groups. 

In still another respect we find that the line of 
growth following conversion runs exactly parallel with 
that pointed out in Part II. Here, likewise, we find a 
definite period of reconstruction ; and, reviewing the 
cases in the rough, it appears that while nearly all have had 
adolescent difficulties, at the time of making the records 
all of the respondents except three have arrived at a 
positive and constructive attitude toward life. Almost 
without exception they have left their struggles behind 
them. Although there are doubts still of certain things 
that other people regard as essential, they give no 
especial anxiety. The right to question beliefs is, on 
the contrary, often regarded as the condition of arriving 
at truth ; for example, one man says : ' I have tested 
my hold on truth by reason and experience. I hold 
every belief subject to revision; nothing is outside the 
sphere of doubt and inquiry. I never consider a matter 
settled until its truth seems irresistible/ The definite 



LINE OF GROWTH FOLLOWING CONVERSION 367 

age at which reconstruction occurs does not come out 
so clearly here as in the former study on account of the 
fewness of the cases. From what has been said, how- 
ever, it is clear that it is here again not later than 25. 
It is even more marked in this class than in the former, 
judging by the larger percentage who have finally 
entered upon a positive stage. The instinct of sociality 
is greater in this class of persons whose life is usually 
conducted in close conjunction with organised institu- 
tions. The fact of having to work along with people 
brings with it the necessity of adapting one's own 
religious conceptions to those of society. One must 
either do this or stand aloof from one's fellows, and 
persons almost invariably choose the former alternative. 
Another influence which is strongly at work in bringing 
about the period of reconstruction seems to be the psy- 
chological necessity of gaining a clear mental horizon ; 
one cannot remain in uncertainty. There is in the cases 
a distinct working of the ' will to believe/ One person 
says 'faith is man's comprehensive duty/ We occa- 
sionally find persons in the act of trying to reconstruct 
their faith. A woman converted at 16 says: 'I am 
doubtful of the truth of the Thirty-nine Articles. I 
have a growing belief in the existence of God who is 
a universal Father. I am trying again to believe in 
the divinity of Christ/ 

In these people, then, who have passed through con- 
version, we have the same reconstruction process of 
growth illustrated that we have found heretofore. This 
correspondence makes it appear a little more probable 
that it is a universal tendency in religious development 
that the period of adolescence should end by transition 
to a positive and active religious attitude. 

Since we have now learned that whether or not con- 
version has been experienced persons tend to pass 
through the same general line of growth, we come to 
the question whether or not they merge into mature 
life with the same general religious conceptions and 
attitudes. 



368 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

A partial answer to the question can be found by 
considering the beliefs, feelings and ideals of the two 
groups. These three aspects of the adult religion of the 
conversion group were tabulated under the same head- 
ings which grew up in the study of the non-conversion 
cases. 

If we compare first the feelings, we find among the 
conversion cases the same emotions, but with these 
essential differences : the feelings which represent a 
sense of oneness with God and Christ and the Holy 
Spirit are far more common, and there is apparently 
greater subjectivity of feeling. These persons show to 
a less degree the feeling of humility and dependence ; 
but this is no evidence of the absence of a sense of 
kinship between themselves and God, but rather that 
there is not an intellectual recognition of the relation- 
ship. There is more commonly than in the other 
group a sense of inward joy and satisfaction. Such 
forms of expression as these are common : ' The spirit 
beareth witness with my spirit that I am a child of 
God.' i We know that He abideth in us by the spirit 
He hath given us/ The most decided difference seems 
to be that in the conversion group the range of feel- 
ing has become narrowed and intensified ; there is to 
a greater degree inward assurance of a satisfactory 
personal experience. 

In the comparison of the beliefs of the two groups, 
there are some likenesses and differences that stand out 
clearly. In both, the beliefs centre most often around 
the three great questions of God, Christ, and Immor- 
tality. The belief in God is mentioned with about the 
same frequency as in the other group. It is by far the 
most important of all the items. There is this difference, 
which the percentages do not show, that the conception 
of God is nearly always expressed in conventional 
language. The representation of God as mystery, as 
infinity, force, or life, or law, as the underlying reality of 
the world — conceptions which indicate that the person 
is in the process of gaining a first-hand appreciation of 



LINE OF GROWTH FOLLOWING CONVERSION 369 

the God-idea and assimilating it — almost never occur, 
although these conceptions were frequent among the 
non-conversion group. Twice as often do they describe 
their beliefs in terms of the Apostles' creed. 

The belief in Christ is a somewhat more vital concep- 
tion among the conversion cases by as much as the ratio 
of 51 to 43. The belief in immortality, if one were to 
judge by the frequency with which it is mentioned, is 
not so central, the ratio being 12 to 26. It seems often 
not to have been mentioned, because it is so much 
a matter of course ; this, however, does not sufficiently 
explain its absence. In the relative infrequency of 
sceptical doubts, the question seems not to have forced 
itself upon their notice. We saw in the previous dis- 
cussion of adult beliefs that the immortality question 
got more and more consideration as a life problem as 
life advanced. It is a noteworthy fact that in the 
development of religions the conceptions of immortality 
has arisen later than the theistic notions. 

A suggestive contrast between the two groups 
is that the conception of religion as a life within, which 
we found to represent the most central tendency in 
growth in the non-conversion group, does not appear so 
frequently here as a matter of belief. One would 
anticipate, from the results of the comparison of the 
feelings, that it would figure as one of the central 
conceptions. It is more a feeling than a rational cog- 
nition. This is in line with what we have been ascer- 
taining. The process of intellectual assimilation is less 
among the persons who have passed through the 
conversion experience. In accordance with their consti- 
tutional and temperamental differences they to a great 
extent feel their way. Storm and stress as a sequel 
to conversion we found to be more frequent, while 
doubts were fewer. If we notice the contrast between 
the two groups in regard to the other things which we 
found to be important elements in belief — religion as 
centering in scientific and philosophical conceptions 
religion as a process of growth, and religion as con- 



37o THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

cerned with conduct — we have ample evidence that this 
crucial difference obtains. These three types of feeling 
are all conspicuously absent among the conversion 
group. The ratio of the conception of religion as 
centering in scientific and philosophical conceptions 
in the two groups is I to 1 1 ; that of religion as 
a process of growth is I to 3 ; and that of religion as 
conduct is 1 to 5. The prominence of these items 
among the non-conversion group indicates that they 
are trying to reduce their world to a system and to 
solve their relation with it. They objectify religion 
sufficiently to see it in its time aspects, and to ap- 
preciate it as a process of growth. They take into 
account in a vital way their relationship to society, and 
feel that right-doing is a test of religion. The tendency 
among the conversion cases, on the contrary, seems to 
be to feel that they possess a definite relation with God 
and Christ without having so large concern about the 
intellectual comprehension of this relation. Along with 
a more subjectified attitude there is a higher degree 
of finality and all-sufificiency in the experience ; the 
idea of progression to an end towards which growth 
tends is taken less into account. They cognise their 
personal relationships less perfectly. Practical ethical 
matters appeal less to clear consciousness. This we 
shall find to be true also in the discussion of their 
ideals. Nevertheless, the personal relationships are 
more strongly appreciated from the standpoint of intu- 
itions. Nearly all the records of conversion experience 
speak of God in terms of His personal attributes. They 
picture Him as a loving Father who cares for His 
children ; but less frequently than the other cases do 
they speak of Him as a Father or Spirit, or a Being 
who inspires awe and reverence. In short, the con- 
version group approach religion more from the subjective, 
emotional standpoint ; but at the sacrifice of an intellectual 
comprehension of it, and of a rational appi'eciation of the 
relationship they sustain to tlie world. 

Even more suggestive is the comparison of the ideals 



LINE OF GROWTH FOLLOWING CONVERSION 371 

of the two groups. In the consideration of the ideals 
we shall assume that they represent that which is most 
alive in consciousness. They indicate neither that which 
has already been perfectly assimilated, nor that which is 
entirely unattained, but rather the point at which growth 
is most rapid. A comparison of the ideals is shown in 
Table XXXII. 



Ideals. 


CONVI 


:rsion. 


Non-Conversion. 


Females. 


Males. 


Females. 


Males. 


( Helpfulness to Others 


52 


64 


65 


52 


-j Harmony with God . 


13 


18 


20 


19 


[ To Love and Serve Gcd . 


19 


28 


18 


9 


Christ 


26 


33 


14 


18 


f Self-perfection .... 


30 


38 


32 


4i 


-j Self-expression .... 


18 


33 


IO 


n 


[ To know 


9 


8 


6 


16 


Self-interest .... 





5 


3 


14 


f Self-abnegation .... 
\ Specific Virtues 


9 


10 


20 


13 


9 


20 


34 


30 


Altruistic Group 


94 


no 


103 


80 


Self-enlargement Group 


57 


79 


5i 


82 


Regulative Group 


18 


30 


54 


43 



Table XXXII. — Comparing the ideals of the conversion and non- 
conversion cases. 



We find the same ideals expressed, but with variations 
in their relative prominence. Before proceeding to a 
general comparison of the two groups, there are some 
differences between the sexes which deserve notice. In 
the conversion group the men express ideals more 
frequently than the women in every class, with the 
single exception of gaining knowledge. In the non- 
conversion group this relation tends to be reversed. 
This is especially true in the altruistic class of ideals. 
We found in Part I. that conversion was a more living 
experience with men ; that fact may account for the 



372 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

contrast, if we take into consideration that the effect of 
conversion was to awaken consciousness vigorously in 
the direction of the spiritual life. 

In comparing the groups of ideals in the two sets of 
persons, the altruistic seem to be somewhat heightened 
by conversion, by as much as the ratio of ioo to 95. If 
the ideals centering in Christ, which, as we have seen, 
are partly altruistic, were added, the difference would be 
increased to that represented by the ratio of 139 to no. 
We may invoke the principle just spoken of to explain 
this variance likewise. One immediate effect of con- 
version we found to be to arouse the social and altruistic 
impulses. The other marked effect of conversion was 
to call forth an exalted self-consciousness, an awaken- 
ing to greater emotional activity. This is reflected 
among the ideals in the fact that the self-expression 
motive is far more frequent in the conversion cases. At 
the same time, the desire for knowledge and self- 
interest are somewhat greater in the non-conversion 
group. 

The greatest contrast between the two is in the 
regulative impulses ; they are far more numerous among 
the non-conversion people. This falls in line with the 
distinction pointed out in discussing the beliefs. Those 
who have passed through conversion are much less con- 
cerned with matters of conduct. The conversion ideal 
as usually held up emphasises complete self-mastery, 
the giving up of self wholly to the service of God. This 
is what we find reflected in the table. In the smaller 
number of regulative impulses there is evidence that the 
'old nature ' has been more completely eradicated. The 
fact that self-expression, love and service of God, and 
the ideal as embodied in Christ's life, are greater, implies 
that there has been a more complete birth on the 
spiritual plane. There is a more definite giving-up of 
self, except as represented in the self-enlargement im- 
pulses of self-perfection and self-expression ; and a more 
complete transterring of the centre of activity to an 
objective standard. 



LINE OF GROWTH FOLLOWING CONVERSION 373 

But the case has been made too strong. We must 
bear in mind that the conclusion just reached grows out 
of only one aspect of the comparison of the two groups. 
One condition which clearly lies back of the contrast 
in the ideals is that the conversion group are tempera- 
mentally different. They are more emotional ; they see 
things more in general and abstract terms ; they are 
controlled less by rational insight. The smaller number 
of the regulative impulses may indicate simply self- 
forgetfulness in the presence of stirring emotions. The 
relative absence of the specific virtues may be the result 
of less skill in self-analysis. 

The difference between the two groups may be most 
comprehensively expressed in terms of the nervous 
system. The condition is as if in the conversion group 
the association-centres in the cortex, after having been 
awakened at conversion, were now less completely co- 
ordinated with the lower than is the case among the 
non-conversion cases. There is accordingly greater 
subjectivity and immediacy of experience ; the within- 
ness of religion is appreciated as a matter of feeling, and 
not as an intellectual comprehension. Rational insight, 
which involves the co-ordination and association of the 
lower brain areas through the higher — that is to say, 
which implies that the spiritual life shall be interpreted 
in terms of sensuous experience — is relatively absent. 
The association-centres are doubtless most directly 
evolved out of those activities which are connected 
with social organisation ; accordingly we have found 
that the social and altruistic impulses are the ones most 
vitally connected with the functioning of these brain 
centres. In both of the groups we are studying, these 
impulses are important elements in religion; helpfulness 
to others is equally prominent in both groups. But, on 
the other hand, the conversion group is awakened more 
on the side of abstract ideals. Love and service of 
God and of Christ are far more common ; while, on the 
other hand, the non-conversion group are more con- 
cerned with the specific and practical aspect of the 



374 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

problem, that which involves the regulation of personal 
conduct in accordance with social demands. That such 
is the normal sequence of conversion we shall have 
additional evidence in the next chapter when we come 
to the consideration of i Sanctification.' 



CHAPTER XXIX 

SANCTIFICATION 

The religious experience known in theological terms as 
' sanctification/ or the ' second work of grace/ lends 
itself so readily to psychological analysis that it deserves 
especial consideration. Its chief value in our present 
discussion is that it shows in an emphasised form certain 
aspects of growth which we have found both to follow 
conversion, and also to occur in the religion of mature 
life of those who have not passed through conversion. 
In its usual designation, sanctification is regarded as a 
special act of the Holy Spirit, by which one is, in a 
peculiar way, freed from sin, and set apart for a holy 
life. For our purpose we shall leave behind the theo- 
logical content of the term, its distinction from regenera- 
tion and justification, the question as to whether it is a 
sudden experience or a process of f growth in grace, 5 
and shall allow our conception of the experience to 
develop as it may out of the analysis of the records of 
their own experiences, as made by persons who have 
professed sanctification. Its relation to conversion and 
its significance in religious growth will appear as we 
proceed. 

One of my pupils, Mr Ivan Deach, succeeded in 
bringing together and organising 51 records of sanctifica- 
tion. His list of questions was exhaustive enough to 
call out not only the immediate events centering around 
sanctification, but also the essential features of the life 
history of the respondents. He has kindly allowed me 

375 



376 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

to use his tabulated results. The interpretation of the 
data is partly Mr Deach's and partly my own. 

Before proceeding to a discussion of sanctification 
itself, we should stop a moment to look at the personnel 
of the respondents. As to age at the time of replying, 
they range from 20 to JJ ; only 5 are below 30,* the 
greater number are between 30 and 60. In respect to 
nationality, 23 are American, 11 English, 5 Scotch; 
besides these there a few scattered ones. Just as in the 
study of the post-conversion development, about one- 
half are Methodists; besides these, 14 belong to the 
Salvation Army, 9 are Baptists, 2 Christian Scientists, 
and 1 is a Unitarian ; 35 are men, and 16 are women. 

Sanctification seems to bear throughout a close 
relation to conversion. All but one of the 51 persons 
passed through conversion at some time previous to 
sanctification ; 38 of the number experienced sudden 
conversion. Of the 100 persons whose post-conversion 
growth was followed in the last chapter, 14 (not used 
in this section) had already, at the time of writing, gone 
on to sanctification. That is, it seems that sanctification 
is almost invariably preceded by conversion. These 
surface considerations indicate that it is a step in one 
of the normal lines of growth which follow conversion. 
On the other hand, among the 237 persons studied in 
Part II., none claimed sanctification as a distinct step in 
growth, although many of the characteristics of adult 
religion among those persons bear, as we shall see, close 
kinship to the essential qualities of sanctification. 

There are several different views of sanctification 
among the Protestant churches. Two conceptions 
somewhat at variance are those which regard it, on the 
one hand, as a gradual development following upon 
regeneration, and, on the other, as an instantaneous 
act. Those who hold the latter view are usually the 
ones who likewise believe that regeneration is a sudden 
definite step, such as has been described in conversion. 
Of those who replied to the list of questions, 48 of the 
5 1 were of this second class, and said that sanctification 



SANCTIFICATION 377 

was an instantaneous event. This should be taken into 
account in the discussion which follows. It is obvious 
that these people are temperamentally similar to those 
studied in Part I., except that they possess the 
peculiarities which distinguish the conversion group 
in even greater degree. Nearly half of the 51 cases 
report that outside of these two marked events in their 
development they passed through periods of unusual 
exhilaration. More than a fourth had such periods 
frequently. As we proceed, we shall find evidences 
continually that the qualities of the sanctification 
phenomena are coloured by temperamental conditions. 
While it would be desirable to have an equal number of 
those who profess sanctification as the result of gradual 
development, we may, nevertheless, expect to find the 
same essential elements in the process brought into 
dearer relief in the study of the sudden experience. 

When we come to consider the intimate nature of 
sanctification, its similarities to conversion appear on 
every hand. The distinctive things in the earlier 
experience are even emphasised in the later. Both 
events in the lives of the persons we are studying 
usually come suddenly ; both mark a transition from a 
lower to a higher state of perfection ; both are preceded 
by a period of longing and discontent — of striving 
after a satisfaction. Before sanctification this discon- 
tent is similar to the conviction period before conver- 
sion, but, as a rule, with the difference that the sense 
of sin has given place to a feeling of incompleteness 
and imperfection. These extracts from the sancti- 
fication records will illustrate : ' I felt a deep inward 
conviction of the need of something from God for 
myself, and felt God's call to complete union with Him/ 
' I felt I was living below the experience God would 
have me attain/ ' With others I had been earnestly 
seeking for complete consecration for a number of years.' 
* I had been troubled and distressed for some time. It 
was a period of longing and determination to lead a 
holy life/ The ideal life toward which the person is 



378 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

striving is more distinctly present in consciousness than 
was true before conversion. The effect of conversion 
seems to be, as we saw in Part I., to bring a possible 
righteous life and the old imperfections into sharp 
contrast. There is the same persistent struggle after 
the higher life as we found there, but in an exaggerated 
form. 

The final attainment of the desired experience is con- 
ditioned, just as was conversion, by faith, self-surrender 
and consecration. This was mentioned by 23 of the 
respondents as an important element in the realisation 
of the second experience. One of them writes : ' I had 
been told that implicit faith was a pre-requisite. With 
positive belief came the experience/ Another, who had 
tried long in vain, says : ' Then I went on my knees 
alone, determined to get the victory. I made a com- 
plete consecration of all I had and all I was to God. I 
felt that God had accepted my offering, and that all sin 
was taken out of my heart/ Perfect self-surrender 
seems to be an even more inevitable condition of sancti- 
fication than of conversion. One man describes vividly 
how the Lord tested him with one demand after another, 
and the experience came only after he had expressed 
his willingness to renounce everything — even, finally, his 
family ties. 

After all the longing and striving, and then the faith 
and self-surrender, the part played by those forces which 
are outside of one's immediate control are more prom- 
inent than is the case in conversion. The element of 
spontaneity, of unconscious activity of the mind — the 
i work of the Holy Spirit' — which we found to be 
common to all the groups studied, is even more markedly 
and persistently present at this crisis. One person, for 
example, says, in describing the event: 'I was walking 
alone over the fields, and was suddenly filled with the 
most marvellous power/ The impulse sometimes comes 
as a force that is not to be withstood. * I was doing my 
morning housework, and felt an irresistible desire to 
pray. Three times I was thus called away from my 



SANCTIFICATION 379 

work/ Another was so powerfully impelled that while 
going home from meeting he ' kneeled down in the rain 
and mud and prayed/ He goes on to say: ' Suddenly 
the darkness of the night seemed lit up. I felt, realised, 
knew that God had answered my prayer ; and a feeling 
of sweet peace and satisfaction and happiness came over 
me. I felt that I was accepted into the inner circle of 
God's loved ones/ Two persons ' woke up with it ' after 
a night's rest. It will be recalled that we pointed out 
in the discussion of similar instances of conversion how 
common it is for the mind to solve its problems during 
sleep. 

The feeling of God's forgiveness, the freedom from 
the sense of sin, prominent at the critical point in con- 
version, is one of the most frequently expressed char- 
acteristics of sanctification ; but the form of expression 
has changed. While the former was a mere act of 
pardon, this is usually described as a complete cleansing. 
These are typical : ' I felt pure and clean so that I 
wished I were made of glass, so that everyone could 
look within my heart/ ' I had the witness of God's 
spirit that a clean heart had been created within me/ 
1 Self-mastery and a real purification of my nature 
became manifest in me.' The work of forgiveness seems 
to be more thorough ; it involves one's entire being ; 
the person feels not only that his sins have been 
forgiven, but that he has been made wholly pure. 

The sense of oneness with God or Christ, another 
immediate result of conversion, is likewise emphasised 
in sanctification. It is now expressed with greater 
fulness of feeling. 'The blessed assurance came that 
God had taken me for His own and had come to abide. 
My joy was full/ ' It brought me to a deeper con- 
sciousness of God's presence/ ' A sense of perfect 
harmony with God and joy unspeakable filled my 
heart/ ' A deeper composure seized me, a sense of 
Divine nearness.' 

In view of all these similarities, the question arises, 
Wherein does sanctification differ from conversion? 



380 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

Does it bring with it anything new, over and above 
what was experienced in conversion ? For the dis- 
tinction we shall rely first upon the testimony of the 
respondents, most of whom attempted an answer to the 
question, and later on we shall interpret the difference 
in the light of the experiences which intervene between 
conversion and sanctification. 

As told by the respondents, the distinction is ex- 
pressed tersely by one of them thus: 'It was the 
climax of the spiritual development that had been 
going on within me. It differed from conversion not 
in kind, but in degree/ This gives the spirit of most 
of the others, and almost the manner of expression of 
many of them. The specific ways in which it is a 
culmination of conversion are along the lines of the 
changes wrought then in one's nature. Evil habits are 
more completely broken up. For example: 'At con- 
version I experienced pardon for sin, a new heart, a 
disposition to do right, although an evil tendency 
remained. Sanctification took away this tendency.' 
The feeling of harmony with God is heightened. 
'Sanctification brought a fuller consciousness of the 
presence of the Holy Spirit.' Sanctification brings 
with it a fulness, an all-aroundness of experience which 
is new. The joy at conversion has been enlarged so 
that it approaches a state of ecstasy in which one's 
whole nature participates. ' I was cleansed from all 
sin and filled with the fulness of God as I had not 
been at conversion.' ' Conversion was a consecration 
to God ; sanctification was an exalted state of soul, 
an indwelling of power.' In these instances one sees 
also the heightened subjectivity of experience which 
we shall find to be one of the distinguishing aspects 
of sanctification. 

But so far as understanding sanctification in psycho- 
logical terms is concerned, we are yet on the outside of 
it. What is going on beneath the surface when persons 
who have already had a sudden awakening into religious 
truth profess instantly to be lifted to a yet higher plane 



SANCTIFICATION 381 

of religious life? We can adequately appreciate the 
mental processes involved in it, and their significance in 
religious development, only by following up the ex- 
. periences which intervene between conversion and 
sanctification. 

The number of years between the two events varies. 
They range from two months to forty years. It is a 
singular fact, the cause of which is not clear, that 
sanctification is likely to fall inside of the first year 
after conversion, or to be postponed for at least twenty 
years. Considerably more than half of the cases occur 
either before the first year has ended, or after a period 
of twenty years has elapsed. It appears that the time 
of least frequency with which sanctification follows 
conversion is five to ten years. 

The fact of greatest significance in the light it throws 
on sanctification in regard to this intervening period is 
that 80 per cent, of the persons have a troubled and 
uneven growth. This, it will be recalled, is about the 
same percentage of storm and stress as we found among 
the hundred persons studied in the last chapter. The 
difficulties encountered by these respondents are the 
same ones described there, and to set them forth in 
detail would be but repetition. The enthusiasm aroused 
at conversion is intermittent ; uncertainty occasionally 
arises as to whether the experience was genuine; doubts 
are frequent, incident upon the striving for a clear 
horizon ; they are the same storm and stress phenomena 
with which we have become familiar. The old Hfej 
professedly abandoned at conversion, is continually 
cropping up ; temptations recur in the direction of 
former evils ; the sense of sin and imperfection persists 
— all of which shows that the old life, although it is for 
a time lost sight of, still exists in the fibre of one's being, 
and has by no means entirely dropped away. 

Interpreted from the psychological point of view, the 
whole struggle after conversion, and the consequent 
necessity which many persons feel of passing on to 
a 'second work of grace/ grows out of the conflict 

26 



382 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

between an old habitual life and a new set of function- 
ings which have not yet become well established in the 
nervous mechanism. The new set of activities are 
those connected with the association centres in the 
brain, and correspond to spiritual insight. The old 
habitual activities are those which constitute the lower, 
reflex, sensuous arcs in the nervous structure ; they 
have been ingrained during all the preceding years into 
its tissue. Not until adolescence are the higher psychic 
powers aroused in earnest — the function of conversion is 
to set them going for religious ends. The person, to be 
sure, has acted as if he were a spiritual being ; but in 
so far as there has been self-direction, the lower centres 
have been organised simply within their own sphere, 
they have been a law to themselves. But now after 
the higher centres are awakened, after the person in 
conversion has accepted the spiritual life as his own, 
those activities remain a law in one's members which 
wars against the higher. Sanctification is a fresh affir- 
mation, when the new life has become established, that 
the old does not exist. 

If we notice the nature of the difficulties after con- 
version, we find none of them which do not fit readily 
into this conception. In a description like the following 
one might suppose the person were trying to set forth 
in figurative language the brain tract idea : ' The tree 
of sin had been cut down, but the young sprouts of 
temper, pride, and many others were springing up from 
the old root/ In other words, the old synthesis of 
nervous discharges had been shattered, but the nerve 
elements continued to come together bit by bit into 
their old combinations, and these were inharmonious 
with the new spiritual attitude. After persistent effort 
toward a life which is wholly spiritual, the nervous 
system forms itself in that direction. The new set of 
activities furnish a substantial basis for the conduct of 
life. When this same respondent became conscious of 
new power, the step by which he identified himself with 
it was sanctification. He himself had apparently been 



SANCTIFICATION 383 

ignorant of the strength that had been accumulating ; 
when it arose into consciousness, it marked a great 
event. After sanctification he carries out the same 
figure, and says : ' I know that it took all the roots of 
envy, jealousy, malice, hatred, false pride, bitterness and 
impatience out of my heart.' This is expressed in many 
ways. One person in describing the life after conver- 
sion writes : ' My self-control was not fully complete. I 
gave way to anger ; my life was more or less chequered ; 
a tendency to evil still remained/ Although at con- 
version there had been ' pardon for sin and a new 
heart/ a tendency to evil remained — ' sanctification took 
away this tendency.' 

But not only must the old habits be broken, an 
entirely new set of habits must be formed, and must 
have time to become ingrained into the nervous tissue. 
At conversion the person has accepted a new ideal as 
his own. It is vivid and real enough, but it exists 
largely as a possibility for future development. Before 
it can supplant the old life, it must become real in the 
same sense as the old was real. The person is usually 
thrown into wholly different surroundings, which de- 
mand changed modes of life. Church-going, saying 
prayers, participating in the sacraments, taking part 
in the ritual, talking on occasion upon religious topics, 
all these things and a hundred more are foreign, the 
chances are, to his way of thinking and acting. He 
must act as if he understood them all — they cannot 
really be his until they are worked over through habit 
and become a part of his physical and spiritual make- 
up. He is like a little child who is thrown into the 
world where an entirely strange environment is to be 
assimilated ; but there is this difference, that he is 
usually expected to learn to adapt his life in the new 
way without sufficient tutelage. Unless he has already 
been ripe for the fresh insight and new activities, he has 
difficulty in making the readjustment. Hence results 
the friction which so often follows conversion — an irrita- 
tion, a discontent. One person who represents a large 



384 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

number of her kind writes : * I experienced temptations 
and was discontented. I did not feel that I was in 
accord with Christian standards. The way was un- 
certain and uneven. I felt dissatisfied and was filled 
with unrest.' But after sanctification the story is 
changed: 'I became courageous and willing to show 
my colours. I felt nearer to God in my prayers.' 
One now feels at home in the new life. With these 
facts in mind, we are able to read with a greater degree 
of clearness all of the accounts of sanctification. One 
of the respondents says : ' Conversion removed the sense 
of condemnation, and brought into my heart peace 
toward God and a fervent love that prompted an earnest 
effort to lead a Christian life. Sanctification removed 
from within my heart all sense of depravity, weakness and 
fear, making the service of God a delight. I had more 
courage and strength to discharge Christian duty. It 
far exceeded in depth and fulness the first blessing.' 

Thus we have seen how rarely it is that peace and 
contentment are attained after conversion until the old 
habits which contradict the new attitude are completely 
broken. A life of harmony cannot be reached until the 
new set of activities have become habitual and carry 
with them a tone of familiarity. Sanctification is the 
step) usually after muck striving and discontent, by which 
the personality is finally identified with the spiritual life 
which at conversion existed merely as a hazy possibility. 

The difficulties experienced after conversion have: 
now been largely overcome. Twenty-two of the cases 
record that they have altogether disappeared; 17 say 
that they have lessened. The persons are tempted, to 
be sure, as confessed by 43 of the 51 ; but there is 
not the disposition to yield. One writes : ' The old 
temptations would arise, but strength from God made 
resistance easy.' Another expresses the same thing in 
a terse and suggestive way: ' Temptations from without 
still assail me, but there is nothing within to respond to 
them.' Three of the number report that they are not 
even tempted. 



SANCTIFICATION 385 

It will be recalled that one pronounced feature of 
adult religion in the conversion group was their great 
sense of religion as a subjective possession. This is 
even more marked among those who have experienced 
sanctification. In fact, one meaning of sanctification is 
that now the person feels right with God, he appreciates 
religion as his own, God is his friend and companion. 
' When I was converted, the Holy Spirit came to be 
with me. When I was sanctified, He came into my 
heart/ l I had a rich consciousness of the incoming of 
the Holy Spirit, an unspeakable fulness of blessedness.' 
This richness of inward experience is in exact contrast 
with the state shortly after conversion when the first 
enthusiasm has passed. That condition is represented 
in the following extracts : ' At times I felt a fear of 
death, and wondered if there were not an experience 
beyond this that I could attain/ ' I had a longing for a 
steadier and more satisfactory experience/ ' There was 
a steady and rapid growth toward sanctification, but I 
did not realise the fulness of religion/ The state which 
is striven after, and which is attained at sanctification, is 
that in which the person is no longer a mere participant 
in the Divine life, but is a medium through which it 
expresses itself. 

One sees the same thing illustrated in a smaller way 
in matters that are commonplaces of everyday life. In 
learning to play a game, an athlete soon becomes aware 
of his ability to perform the necessary feats skilfully. 
He sometimes awakens suddenly to an understanding 
of the fine points of the game, and to a real enjoyment 
of it, just as the convert awakens to an appreciation of 
religion. But if he keeps on engaging in the sport, 
there may come a day when all at once the game plays 
itself through him — when he loses himself in some great 
contest. In the same way, a musician may suddenly 
reach a point at which pleasure in the technique of the art 
entirely falls away, and in some moment of inspiration 
he becomes the instrument through which music flows. 
The writer has chanced to hear two different married 



386 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

persons, both of whose wedded lives had been beautiful 
from the beginning, relate that not until a year or more 
after marriage did they really awaken to the full 
blessedness of married life. So it is with the religious 
experience of these persons we are studying. The new 
life begun at conversion must be lived before it can be 
appreciated from within. Sanctification is the con- 
dition in which one has so completely assimilated 
spiritual truth that he feels himself one with it ; in 
which he awakens to the inner realisation of its mean- 
ing ; in which he attains that state wherein the divine 
life can freely express itself through him. 

The increased subjectivity and inner appreciation of 
religion which accompanies sanctification does not come 
without a sacrifice. There is, at the same time, a de- 
cided narrowing of the range of interest in outward 
things. This is the obverse side, and is perhaps an 
inevitable consequence of the awakening on the inner 
side. The mind seems to have drawn in the tentacles 
with which it felt its way into the manifold interests of 
its kind. In certain ways it has lost its touch with the 
outer world. There is depreciation of all those pleasures 
that are connected with the life of sense. The condition 
seems to indicate that after the association centres of 
the cortex have thoroughly come into activity, the 
friction between them and the lower brain areas has 
been removed once for all by a more or less perfect 
cutting off of the connection between the lower and 
higher. The association centres are made to constitute 
a synthesis within themselves. The nervous discharges 
of the lower, vegetative and sensuous areas are kept 
within their own range. That fraction of these impulses 
which is constantly trying to discharge through the 
association centres is continually inhibited. The pro- 
cess is helped along by branding everything bound up 
with the lower centres as sin. This condition in which 
the association centres connected with the spiritual life 
are cut off from the lower is often reflected in the way 
the respondents describe their experiences. One cf the 



SANCTIFICATION 387 

quotations above, for example, is now clear, in which 
the person says : ' Temptations from without still assail 
me, but there is nothing within to respond to them/ 
The ego is wholly identified with the higher centres, 
whose quality of feeling is that of ' withinness/ An- 
other of the respondents says : ' Since then, although 
Satan tempts me, there is, as it were, a wall of brass 
around me, so that his darts cannot touch me/ This 

* wall of brass ' is a good phrase by which to describe 
the inhibition of direct connection between the lower 
and higher centres, and the fact that the person has 
taken up his abode permanently in the higher, except 
that the description is perhaps carried too far. It is 
impossible for the connection to be entirely annulled — 
the person must keep on eating, breathing, and drinking 
in and assimilating sense impressions; and it is inevit- 
able that these affect consciousness in at least an in- 
direct way. A more accurate term for the severed 
relation would be a brass wall with chinks in it. The 
sensuous and the vegetative impulses which leak in 
are, however, disregarded in the psychic complex in- 
volved in spiritual activities. 

That this condition obtains is shown in many ways. 
Twenty-two express since sanctification a more intense 
hatred of sin ; 1 5 have become so free from it as to pro- 
fess perfection; 24 care less for personal adornment. 
One writes : * I can spare no time for anything that is 
merely for pleasure or personal adornment/ Another: 

* I stopped wearing jewellery and extravagant dress/ 
Thirty-four regard most amusements as sinful. One 
says : ' I do not feel at liberty to attend theatres, play 
cards, etc. My greatest joy now is to do God's will, 
and that joy exceeds all other joys of life/ * One in the 
enjoyment of a clean heart, perfect love or sanctification, 
has something so much better than the world offers 
in the way of amusement, personal adornments, art, 
secular reading, science, intellectual pursuits in general, 
that it seems but folly to come down to them/ 

It is interesting to note in this connection that 



3 8S THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

certain denominations which have split off in order to 
emphasise spirituality in religion have laid stress on the 
importance of simplicity in dress and entire unworld- 
iiness. Dancing, card-playing, theatre-going, racing, and 
the like, are usually condemned in their church dis- 
ciplines, and are tabooed as worldly, even aside from the 
gambling and other immorality sometimes bound up 
with them. The mystics were in the habit of shutting 
themselves in for the sake of making it easier to engage 
in quiet contemplation ; the customs of the monks and 
ascetics, too, were an historical development which 
seems to correspond with this tendency in individual 
Their seclusion and renunciation of all pleasures were 
means of facilitating a separate and independent develop- 
ment of the association centres. Kant found that he 
could better engage in philosophical thought while 
gazing steadily at a neighbouring church steeple. Plato 
believed that the senses vitiated the wisdom of the true 
philosopher. All of these instances seem to have some- 
thing in common, namely, the sacrifice which it is neces- 
sary to make in the cultivation of the sensuous life, in 
order that there may be a specialisation of energy in the 
brain areas involved in the higher psychic functions. 
The loss of interest in worldly things by those who 
profess sanctification is the sacrifice they make in order 
to become spiritual creatures. This is in line with the 
normal development at adolescence. Experimental 
tests have established the fact that when the ability to 
reason and the other mental activities which indicate 
increased power in the higher brain areas begin to 
function in earnest, the senses not only fail to keep up 
their former rate of development, but even decline in 
efficiency. Sanctification carries this process one step 
further and aims at complete freedom from the life of 
the senses. 

It is but a corollary of what has already been said 
to point out how readily sanctification passes over into 
a pathological condition. The frequency with which 
these persons become inmates of asylums itself indicates 



SANCTIFICATION 389 

that there is danger, in this extreme advance toward 
spirituality, of losing balance. The signs of abnormality 
which sanctified persons show, judged by the standards 
of what constitutes a normal citizen, are of frequent 
occurrence. They get out of tune with other people ; 
often they will have nothing to do with churches, which 
they regard as worldly ; they become hyper-critical 
toward others ; they grow careless of their social, political 
and financial obligations. As an instance of this type 
may be mentioned a woman of 68, of whom the writer 
made a special study. She had been a member of one 
of the most active and progressive churches in a busy 
part of a large city. Her pastor described her as having 
reached the censorious stage. She had grown more and 
more out of sympathy with the church ; her connection 
with it finally consisted simply in attendance at prayer- 
meeting, at which her only message was that of reproof 
and condemnation of the others for living on a low 
plane. At last she withdrew from fellowship with any 
church. The writer found her living alone in a little 
room on the top storey of a cheap boarding-house 
quite out of touch with all human relations, but appar- 
ently happy in the enjoyment of her own spiritual 
blessings. Her time was occupied in writing booklets 
on sanctification — page after page of dreamy rhapsody. 
She proved to be one of a small group of persons who 
claim that entire salvation involves three steps instead 
of two ; not only must there be conversion and sanctifi- 
cation, but a third which they call ' crucifixion ' or 
1 perfect redemption/ and which seems to bear the same 
relation to sanctification that this bears to conversion. 
She related how the Spirit had said to her : * Stop going 
to church. Stop going to holiness meetings. Go to 
your own room, and I will teach you/ She professes to 
care nothing for colleges, or preachers, or churches, but 
only cares to listen to what God says to her. Her 
description of her experience seemed entirely consistent; 
she is happy and contented, and her life is perfectly 
satisfactory to herself. While listening to her own 



390 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

story, one was tempted to forget that it was from the 
life of a person who could not live by it in conjunction 
with her fellows. Like that of many of her kind, seen 
simply from its own point of view, her sanctified life is 
consistent and beautiful enough. But tested by the 
standard of conduct, of fitting into a useful place in society, 
it appears extremely circumscribed. This case represents 
an exaggeration of that tendency in growth which we are 
now considering. It should be pointed out that there 
are none of the 51 persons who furnish the basis of the 
study who are not earnest and respected Christians. 

A singular anomaly meets us in this group, just as 
in those studied in the last chapter, except that here it 
is even more marked. Along with a strong tendency 
toward subjectivity, a narrowing down of objective 
interests, there is at the same time, when we come to 
study the feelings and ideals, the most intense altruism. 
Love to God and love to man are the mainsprings of 
action. All who mention the influence of sanctification 
upon their ideals and feelings, 41 of the 52, say that its 
effect has been to increase their interest in their fellow- 
men. Nearly all the ideals centre in the love and 
service of God, and in helpfulness to their fellows. The 
explanation of this seems to be, as was pointed out 
previously, that the brain areas concerned in spiritual 
activity have been developed in connection with man's 
life as a social being. It seems that when the higher 
centres are most cut off from those impulses directly 
involved in the egoistic life, they take on to the highest 
degree their own distinctive colouring. From the very 
beginning it has doubtless been in union with his fellows 
that the greatest demands have been made on man's 
intellectual and spiritual powers. If this is true, there 
must be intrinsically bound up in the exercise of 
these areas the social and altruistic instincts. Hence 
it is that we find existing side by side a tendency 
to appreciate religion as a personal experience and 
an impulse toward the service of God and man — 
extreme subjectivity and intense altruism. 



SANCTIFICATION 391 

These two tendencies are the same which stood out 
clearly in the adult life of those who had not experienced 
conversion. Indeed, it seems that sanctification corre- 
sponds in some measure to the period of reconstruction 
in the other group. Aside from the similarity which 
has been pointed out, there is coincidence in the age at 
which they occur. There are only two cases of sanctifi- 
cation under 20 years of age, although all but five of 
the respondents were over 30 at the time when they 
wrote their records. Far more occur between 20 and 30 
than during any other decade. This is exactly what we 
found in regard to the age of reconstruction. Sanctifica- 
tion seems to bear the same relation to conversion as 
does reconstruction to the earlier adolescent awaken- 
ings. Both are separated from their antecedent experi- 
ences by a period of storm and stress and doubt, of 
adolescent instability. In both, the end of this period is 
marked by a transition into a life which is self-possessed, 
constructive, positive, and guided by social impulses. 

We have, then, this interesting result, that religious 
growth which is attended by sanctification in many of 
its essential aspects reaches the same culmination as do 
the other two lines of development previously described. 
There are, to be sure, many differences — principally 
differences in the prominence of certain qualities of 
feeling, certain peculiar emphases in ideals and beliefs, 
distinctive tones and colourings in the spiritual life, 
w T hich seem to rest back fundamentally on differences of 
temperament. But in all three groups we find, after the 
credulity of childhood, a welling up in adolescence of 
instinctive religious feeling, followed by the formative 
period during doubt and storm and stress of later 
adolescence, and this in turn merging into the self- 
possessed, active, helpful life of manhood and woman- 
hood. 



CHAPTER XXX 

A GENERAL VIEW OF THE LINE OF RELIGIOUS 
GROWTH 

WHILE analysing and organising the details in the 
preceding chapters, they have now and then seemed to 
become transparent, and to furnish glimpses into the 
operation of spiritual forces. This we have already 
stopped here and there to consider as we have proceeded ; 
now we are ready to pull the threads together a little 
closer, and to make the details more organic. Omitting 
the minor differences, we may gather up from the various 
groups of persons we have studied those features which 
will give us the most comprehensive picture of the usual 
trend of religious development. 

The character of the phenomena at different stages 
of life divides religious growth naturally into three great 
periods — childhood, adolescence, and maturity. These 
periods we found to be equally distinct in each of the 
three different classes of persons. In all they were so 
pronounced as to set them forth in unqualified terms as 
periods which belong naturally to individual growth. 
To be artificially accurate for the sake of clearness, we 
have childhood up to about 12, youth extending from 
this age to about 25, and after that maturity. 

Seen in its most general aspect, the end of religious 
growth seems to be to make the credulous and receptive 
child over into a full-grown spiritual man or woman. 
The records show at last four distinct lines of advance 
from childhood to maturity. 

The first and most prominent of these is that which 
392 



VIEW OF THE LINE OF RELIGIOUS GROWTH 393 

transfers the centre of activity from self-interest to 
interest in the whole, of which the self is but a part. 
The person comes to live in the larger life outside 
himself. The child emerges from the unknown sea, 
bringing with him racial tendencies. Among these is 
the brute instinct of self-preservation, which shows itself 
in anger, sensitiveness, jealousy, and the like. Every- 
thing goes to contribute to the nucleus of a self. The 
value of religion to the child is in what it can bring to 
him. The same tendency appears in the early religion 
of different peoples. In the Vedas, for instance, the 
hymns are full of supplications for personal favours from 
the gods — for protection, for wealth, and offspring. 
Mature religion, on the contrary, shows a strenuous 
advance towards losing the self in service. The interests 
of the individual become inextricably bound up in those 
of society ; he now recognises himself as part of a larger 
spiritual world to which he is subject ; and he finds life 
only by fitting into an eternal plan. He comes to feel 
himself in harmony with the spiritual life about him, 
and responds to it with the feelings of faith, love, rever- 
ence and dependence. Self-interest becomes trans- 
formed into love of God. 

The second line of advance is that the individual 
tends to become a positive, spiritual force. The child is 
in a receptive attitude towards its surroundings and 
dependent on them. Throughout early life it is held in 
the lap of society as at first in that of its mother. But 
the mature person must stand as an organic part of the 
social whole, a positive factor in it, and find his life in 
actively contributing to it. The way into mature life, 
we have found, consists largely in entering upon a life of 
activity. 

But it seems to be nature's plan, in the third place, to 
produce a mature person who not only acts, but who 
acts wisely. He must possess a high degree of insight, 
— must see things for himself. With the child, religion 
consists largely in precepts, in dogmas, in the authority 
of parents, church and religious code. Religion is all 



394 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

external to him ; God is a being above and beyond him. 
This must all be worked over as part of his own conscious- 
ness. At first there is no insight, no immediacy to any 
of his religious experiences. Although he instinctively 
asserts it, he does not even consciously appreciate the 
fact of his own selfhood. All this must be changed. 
The person must come to apperceive religious truth, feel 
for himself its inherent worth, make it his own by living 
it from within. In mature life he comes more and more 
to feel himself a medium through which universal life 
expresses itself. 

Again, a persistent element in religion is that the 
person reaches out after fuller life. It seems that 
the instinct of self-enlargement and the delight in self- 
expression do not cease even in maturity. There is, 
however, a transformation in the quality of the impulse. 
At first it is ego-centric ; in adult life self-interest seems 
to have become almost eliminated. As life advances, 
the regulative impulses which keep the instincts in 
check and hold them within their proper limits are 
constantly active. In youth these have grown into the 
organic feeling of the sense of sin ; and in adult life 
they still persist in the abstract ideal of self-abnegation. 
Under the influence of these forces we find the impulse 
toward self-expression and self-enlargement becoming 
refined in maturity into a craving for righteousness, a 
desire to be all and do all for the glory of God and 
the service of man. 

Now, what of the period intervening between child- 
hood and maturity, that of adolescence? Its function 
is simply to effect those transformations described 
above. All the fermentation, unrest, instability and 
sporadic outbursts are indications on the surface that a 
personality is forming beneath that has capacity for 
self-direction and independent insight. During child- 
hood, life has been determined largely by heredity and 
imitation. The infant comes on the scene with most of 
the peculiarities of its race and even of its immediate 
parentage already formed. Its nervous system is pre- 



VIEW OF THE LINE OF RELIGIOUS GROWTH 395 

determined to function in certain ways which will make 
it in general act and feel and think as do those around 
it. To intensify this conformity there is the instinct of 
imitation. From its first year the child mimics the 
ways of those about it. It doubtless picks up un- 
consciously the little things which give tone and quality 
to its life. This instinct is nature's way of saying that 
the child must conform to its type ; that during these 
early years of tutelage it must drink in the wisdom of 
its kind. But if society is to hold its own and is to 
develop, this nucleus of receptivity must be transformed 
into a positive unit, with force and insight of its own. 
Adolescence is the time when this new personality is 
formed. If we take into account all the surface indica- 
tions, they give unmistakable evidence that the funda- 
mental thing underlying them all is the birth of selfhood, 
the awakening of a self-conscious personality. This 
is one of the central facts that bring harmony and 
unity into the multiplicity of adolescent phenomena. 
Another essential fact that must likewise be kept in 
mind is the existence of a social organism, fixed in its 
ways and relentless in its demands, to which the budding 
nucleus of a self must in some way adapt itself If we 
bear in mind these two facts, they will help to bring 
simplicity where otherwise there would be only com- 
plexity and confusion. 

Adolescence divides itself naturally into two periods, 
the first of which extends, we may say roughly, 
from about 12 to 18 ; the second from about 18 
to 25. The first division is that in w r hich the spon- 
taneous life of will and emotion bursts forth. It 
comes in a great wave at about 15 or 16, preceded 
by a smaller one at about 12, and followed by 
another at about 17 or 18. We are to look upon this 
welling-up of new life as a hereditary outcrop. Biologic- 
ally, it is remotely connected with the awakening of 
the reproductive life. This has been sufficiently discussed 
in Chapter XI L The point of interest for us here is 
that a new personality is taking shape. This outburst 



396 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

often comes suddenly and unexpectedly, even though 
sometimes elicited by songs, prayers, sermons and 
religious ceremonies. It has a large element of 
spontaneity. When it bursts forth, it is the first 
announcement to the person of the store of energy 
which has lain dormant within him. He has become a 
centre through which racial instincts express themselves. 
The sea of feeling out of which he was born has begun 
to break through the nucleus of a self. It is a great 
event in religious growth when he first becomes con- 
scious of the life that is stirring within him. The con- 
sciousness of a self is frequently the purest and almost 
the only intellectual element involved in the awakening. 
One person, who saw his image reflected in a shop 
window, had this sudden disclosure : ' I am I. I have a 
life of my own to live.' For some time afterwards, he 
tells us, the sense of personal responsibility for life and 
conduct weighed heavily on his boyish mind. It is 
instructive to note that in racial development this dis- 
covery of self has also been an important event. 
Following upon the Vedic period referred to above, the 
religious development of the Hindus for some time 
centered about this one fact. It was of such significance 
as to underlie the whole religious philosophy. ' That 
art thou ' was the constantly-reiterated message of the 
Brahman priests, by which they meant to disclose the 
fact of the existence of the self and its oneness with 
Brahm. We read in one of the Upanishads : ' There is 
this city of God, the body, and in it the palace, the small 
lotus of the heart, and in it that small self. Now, what 
exists within that small self that is to be sought for and 
to be understood. . . . Whatever there is of God here 
in the world, whatever has been or will be, that is con- 
tained within it. . . . Those who depart from hence 
having discovered the self and those true desires, for 
them there is freedom in all the worlds/ In adolescence 
the self becomes the point of reference for experience ; 
everything is judged in terms of one's own conscious- 
ness. The conception of self may indeed be but 



VIEW OF THE LINE OF RELIGIOUS GROWTH 397 

dimly appreciated, but it exists as a sub-conscious fact 
with sufficient force to influence conduct. The youth 
insists on living his life, seeing things for himself. 
During childhood he was held in the strait-jacket of 
social custom, which habit had made reflex, mechanical 
and unconscious ; he now insists on seeing the reason 
for the things he does. 

But the adolescent finds himself face to face with a 
system of things which is already established. He is 
born into a society in which the standard of activity is 
already set. Law and custom have made it fixed and 
rigid. He has likewise come into a world-order whose 
laws are changeless. The demands of the entire system 
of things outside of him are relentless. The interesting 
situation has now arisen in which the new personality 
has to adapt itself in some way to this external system. 
The possibilities which open up when this crisis is 
reached are as varied as the diversity of temperaments 
and the peculiarities of environment, both past and 
present, which enter into it. Although the resultant 
phases of experience are numerous, there are certain 
well-marked types. If by chance the mental horizon 
which opens up to the youth harmonises with his 
environment, a thing which appears to happen some- 
what rarely, there may result an uneventful develop- 
ment — the person may go on progressively assimilating 
the life about him, and merge into vigorous and healthy 
manhood or womanhood without knowing how or when. 
Often the new life expresses itself readily in motor 
terms, and the person enters directly into a life of help- 
fulness and activity. He acquires, by trying and failing 
and trying again, the wisdom which others gain through 
rational channels. 

It is more often the .case that there is more or less 
friction in the process of adjusting the self to the whole. 
Persons often try, but try for a time in vain, and are 
thrown back into a state of inactivity, indifference and 
carelessness. The frequency of storm and stress, which 
begins in this early period of adolescence, is evidence 

27 



398 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

that the self is feeling its way, and forcing its way into 
clear light. The soul is torn by unhappiness and dis- 
content. It struggles after an ideal which society holds 
up for it, but which it imperfectly appreciates. All this 
is the friction of embryonic selfhood against the 
crystallised forms which society has thrown about it. 
Doubts and questionings are likewise the result of the 
attempt to square this acquired nucleus of a self with 
the world outside, to select and assimilate that which is 
best adapted to its peculiar needs. 

Although the frequency of storm and stress and 
doubt may indicate imperfections in training and in 
physical and environmental conditions, which we may 
hope eventually will be overcome, still in some sense we 
must regard them as indissolubly bound up in the pro- 
cess of mental and spiritual acquisition. The facts in 
the foregoing pages seem conclusive that even when 
persons have been carefully reared and are full of 
wholesome habits, even when wise counsel is avail- 
able, they have, notwithstanding, undergone adolescent 
struggles. It seems a rare chance when we take into 
account what the adolescent development means that 
there should not be some difficulty and stress. Within 
the space of a few years a wonderful transformation is 
to be wrought. The youth is suddenly to come into the 
full use of those powers which are the highest product 
of racial development. During childhood they lay 
dormant, ready to function ; now, in so short a time, a 
marvellous, complex psychic life is to be worked into 
a system within itself, and also to be perfectly co- 
ordinated with those modes of thought and activity 
which have already existed. If we take into account 
that all this development is reaching out into an 
entirely new sphere, we can appreciate somewhat the 
uncertainty and instability that must attend the first 
full functioning of those powers concerned in religious 
insight. When we combine with the fact of the range 
of development now to be traversed in a brief space of 
time, the other fact of the difficulty of acquiring any 



VIEW OF THE LINE OF RELIGIOUS GROWTH 399 

sort of new knowledge whatever, we are in a position 
to understand the improbability that a person shall 
pass smoothly through adolescence, and shall at the 
same time realise the full possibility of manhood 
and womanhood. Society has set certain religious 
standards, which, although the mature person can live 
in accordance with them with some degree of ease and 
composure, seem to the youth entirely beyond his com- 
prehension. The child may be already the embodiment 
of righteousness ; but in the attempt to understand 
spiritual truth, holding it off for the first time to view it, 
preparatory to a fuller comprehension of it, it is full of 
strangeness and mystery. Still, it is necessary for the 
time to objectify spiritual truth, either consciously or 
sub-consciously, if one is to attain a higher order of 
life in which there is spiritual insight and personal 
forcefulness. 

The prevalence of religious doubt and storm and 
stress seems to be the result of natural selection. Those 
persons have been chosen out as most fit to exist who 
do not take things simply on authority, but who gain 
for themselves a rational hold on truth. Nothing is 
really understood at first hand until it has been called 
up into consciousness, and then worked over into experi- 
ence. As childhood is the time for the acquisition of 
good habits through imitation and conformity, so nature 
has made another wise provision by which each person 
may not only comprehend the best the race has pro- 
duced, but bring to it his or her bit of improvement. 
Adolescence is the time for those divergencies from 
conventional types which enlarge the range of human 
wisdom and experience. If the line of self-expression 
of each person is slightly divergent with custom, it may 
result in friction, but it adds withal to the enlargement 
and enrichment of human experience. In racial develop- 
ment likewise, doubt, storm and stress and reaction- 
ary tendencies have constantly arisen. A period of 
scepticism arose in the post-Vedic period of India at a 
time when the Brahman code tended to become 



4 oo THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

crystallised. Developing side by side with the extreme 
dogmatic tendencies in Greek thought during the third 
and second centuries before Christ, arose the sceptics, 
who either called into question or rejected the whole 
of the philosophical systems which had been set up. 
Among religious organisations, similar reactionary 
tendencies have been frequent. When any organisation 
begins to crystallise, a fraction of it starts off in a new 
direction with a fresh emphasis of some vital principle. 
The reasoning, doubting, egoistic, self-asserting period 
seems to have the double function of calling out the 
individual into self-possession and personal insight, and 
of sorting, refining, enriching, enlarging the fund of 
racial experience. 

These phenomena we have been considering usually 
begin in the early period of adolescence, coincident 
with the emotional awakening which announces the 
beginning of the new life. The second division of 
adolescence, from 1 8 to 25 or thereabouts, is one of 
rational readjustments. It is a relatively quiet, formative 
period. There is less disturbance at the surface, fewer 
outbreaks of emotion, and less enthusiasm. Feelings 
of a distinctively religious nature are rare. There is, 
however, doubtless just as much real development going 
on as during earlier adolescence. It is a time of sifting 
and readjusting forces turned loose in one's nature 
during the earlier years. It is the nascent period of 
doubt and of intellectual questionings. It is likewise 
the period of most frequent alienation and revolt. 
These latter years of adolescence seem to be nature's 
alembic in which the distilling is done which brings to 
mature life the best of all the things stirred up in earlier 
youth. It is one of the most important, although one of 
the least eventful periods. Finally, after some years of 
striving, analysing, building, following up bits of insight, 
w r orking out an individual point of view, the feelings 
come into play and give it worth and sanction. This is 
the period of reconstruction. Usually the individual 
hold on truth is recognised to be the same essentially 



VIEW OF THE LINE OF RELIGIOUS GROWTH 401 

as that which all men possess, yet unlike that of anyone, 
because it is a revelation to one's own deepest conscious- 
ness. It is the heart and essence of that which in 
childhood was only form and observance. The person 
becomes at last a sympathiser with the world wisdom, 
a co-operator in social institutions. After sifting 
religious truth, he works it over into life. He enters 
into real fellowship with the world of spiritual things. 
Religion is now lived from within. 

Religious awakenings come most frequently, we have 
seen, at about the age of puberty and of most rapid 
growth in weight. The principles underlying the coin- 
cidence have been sufficiently considered in Chapter XII. 
The fact that spiritual upheavals centre mostly in the 
early years of adolescence rests ultimately upon the new 
developments then taking place in connection with the 
reproductive system. The physiological birth brings 
with it the dawning of all those spiritual accompani- 
ments which are necessary to the fullest social activities. 
One of rny students, in an unpublished research, has 
found that the recognition of the rights of others by 
children has a sudden increment at about the age of 
puberty. This is the time biologically when one enters 
into deep relation with racial life. In a certain sense 
the religious life is an irradiation of the reproductive 
instinct. 

That there is a kinship between religion and sex has 
been fully recognised recently by most sociologists, 
alienists and psychologists. The interpretation of the 
connection between them is usually left in such a way, 
however, as to warrant a few words in regard to their 
relations in fully-developed religion. 

We are not to suppose that in finding the remote 
conditions under which a relation sprang up we have 
found the clue to the nature of the fully-developed 
product. Even if it is true that religion was at first 
intimately bound up in those duties and ceremonies 
which are the outgrowth of sex, in its later stages it 
may have entirely changed its character. Although the 



4 02 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

oversight of this fact has led to considerable misappre- 
hension in tracing the growth of religion, the error is 
now happily being recognised. Professor Caird, for 
example, in his Evolution of Religion, puts the matter in 
a clear and forcible way : * The phenomena of the 
beginning of life are not to be regarded as the causes 
of the phenomena that follow. . . . We cannot from an 
examination of the first stage of a development pro- 
nounce any final judgment for good or ill upon the 
later results of it.' By studying the larva in its habits 
and structure we can pronounce nothing with safety 
beforehand about the nature of the pupa and insect 
which are to continue its existence. The psychical 
life of man is an organism which carries with it a unity 
of its own, a synthesis of its complex elements which is 
more or less independent of the conditions here and 
there in its growth which call it out. We have to dis- 
tinguish constantly between causes and conditions of 
growth. The sexual life, although it has left its 
impress on fully-developed religion, seems to have 
originally given the psychic impulse which called out the 
latent possibilities of development, rather than to have 
furnished the raw material out of which religion was 
constructed. The facts we have been studying lead to 
this conclusion. The answers to the definite point in 
the question list, on the relation in individual experi- 
ence between the sexual and the moral and religious 
life, were usually very frank. In no instance was the 
reproductive instinct admitted to be helpful to spiritual 
attainment, nor was the religious life expressed in terms 
of it. There is no case in which the matter is discussed, 
but that regards the instinct in question as a hindrance 
to the spiritual life unless it is curbed. The checking, 
rather than the free expression, seems to be the essential 
thing. 

Although the reproductive instinct may be primal, 
it seems to have been entirely superseded as a direct 
factor in religious growth by other elements. These 
latter themselves form a regulative instinct which acts 



VIEW OF THE LINE OF RELIGIOUS GROWTH 403 

upon the sexual impulse as a check. It seems that the 
two have become so far differentiated, the separation 
between them has grown so complete, that in the later 
stages of development they have different functions, 
and the interest of religion demands the suppression 
rather than the radiation of the reproductive instinct. 
The sexual instinct, which continues healthy and strong 
to conserve biological ends, has, from a spiritual stand- 
point, become a mere incident in growth. 

It should constantly be borne in mind that religion 
has not been nourished from a single root, but that, on 
the contrary, it has many sources. Among the facts in 
the preceding chapters there are evidences that other 
deep-rooted instincts beside that of sex have been 
operative in religious development. Out of the instinct 
of self-preservation and the desire for fulness of life on 
the physiological plane, there seem to have arisen, by 
progressive refinement and irradiation, the religious 
impulse toward spiritual self-enlargement. Again, 
physiological hunger — an instinct even more primal 
than that of sex — widens into appropriativeness, delight 
in intellectual conquest, and finally into a craving for 
spiritual knowledge. That is, the religious feeling of 
hungering after righteousness may be in some sense 
an irradiation of the crude instinct of food-getting. 
Pleasure in activity, growing out of an overflow of 
nervous energy, seems also to have been lifted to the 
plane of the spiritual life, and, in part, to underlie 
self-expression and joy in service as religious impulses. 
In the beginnings of religion these instincts existed side 
by side, and, in their functioning, brought into activity 
the lower nervous centres. The process of religious 
development has consisted in arousing discharges from 
these through the higher pcychic centres, and in work- 
ing them into a higher synthesis. The significance 
which each of these lines of radiation has in religion at 
different stages of its development is probably, as we 
have seen, a varying quantity. The awakening of any 
one may give an impulse to the rest It can be said 



4 04 THE PSYCHOLOGY Of RELIGION 

with certainty in regard to the sudden increment at the 
beginning of youth in the perfection of the repro- 
ductive system, and the great physiological trans- 
formation that comes with it, that it is the most direct 
source of the altruistic side of religion and of the social 
impulses, including even delight in divine kinship. 
Furthermore, and that is the point which concerns us in 
this connection, it opens the door to the exercise of the 
other impulses which are not of sexual origin. The 
person is suddenly thrown into society. New obli- 
gations are forced upon him. In the stress and strain 
of making the various adjustments incident on becom- 
ing a social being, all the latent powers of his nature are 
called into activity. Now that the spiritual life has 
been actively aroused, it nourishes itself through various 
avenues. The person finds that he bears definite 
relations to the world of things, and of spiritual forces, 
and out of the appreciation of these relations springs up 
a longing to comprehend them and the sense of awe, 
reverence and dependence. 

It is in this contact with external nature, perhaps, 
as much as from any other source, that the aesthetic 
element of religion is fed, after once it has been 
awakened. The sense of duty, which is, as we have 
found, one of the most prominent and persistent factors 
in the spiritual life, seems to have arisen especially out 
of relations which are non-sexual. The complications 
of industry, trade and government establish rights and 
duties which become centres of reference for individual 
conduct. During childhood, while the reproductive 
functions are lying dormant, social contact is instilling 
moral feelings into the child which show themselves 
already in very early life. During adolescence, when 
religious feelings disappear, and there is a chance to 
sift the spiritual life to the last degree, the most pro- 
minent thing is duty, standing out clear and strong. It 
is the moral impulse that is cherished at this time, while 
the person finds it necessary, on the other hand, to curb 
the reproductive instinct in order to attain the fullest 



VIEW OF THE LINE OF RELIGIOUS GROWTH 405 

spiritual development. In short, the coincidences in time 
between the physiological and spiritual awakenings 
indicate, when the various lines of evidence are in, that 
the two may have been originally closely related, but 
that at the present time they are so far differentiated as to 
have no apparent connection. The reproductive instinct 
is one of several roots from which religion has been 
nourished. 

Since the ends reached by conversion and by the 
less violent processes of growth are the same, it is worth 
our while to ask wherein the real difference lies. In the 
first place, it is clear that the difference is often simply 
one of terminology. We saw that spontaneous awaken- 
ings are a very common experience, and that persons 
familiar with the customary revival methods will describe 
an awakening as a conversion, while others mention 
a similar experience as simply an event in the normal 
course of development. Inasmuch as the accompanying 
phenomena, the essential processes involved, and the 
results are similar, we are doubtless safe in saying that 
conversion is a condensed form of adolescentdevelopment. 

Society seems to have unconsciously recognised the 
ends to be attained by religious growth, and to have 
embodied them in the rites of confirmation and con- 
version. Even among savage races there are customs 
at puberty or soon afterward of knocking out the teeth, 
tattooing, circumcision, changing the form of dress, and 
the like, the essential purpose of all of which is the 
initiation of the child into manhood. There is every 
evidence that the convert, in many instances, attains, in 
some measure, the quality of life that he might have 
reached by gradually maturing. The method which 
society uses is to bring into sharp contrast the little 
world of self in which he has been living, and the ideal 
of love into which he must enter. It brings together all 
the habits and desires of his former life, which tend to 
conserve his selfhood, and lumps them as 'sin/ which he 
must once for all renounce. It sets in contrast the 
ideal of perfect goodness, infinite love, and complete 



4 o6 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

happiness through self-sacrifice, which is yet far out of 
reach, but which, through faith, can be attained. It 
pictures the fatal consequences of his present course, 
and the possible well-being to himself and his kind if 
he repent. The power of public opinion is brought to 
bear to increase the strain. The force of his emotional 
nature is called into activity through eloquence and the 
rhythm and harmony of music. He once for all re- 
nounces his little self, and pitches his tent beneath the 
stars. He passes from his own narrow sphere, and 
becomes a citizen of the world. His ideas converge into 
an ideal. His feelings are called into play, and he loves 
and trusts this ideal, and strives toward it. The secret 
of the realisation of this new quality of life may be 
found in part in the attitude of the person. He be- 
comes professedly what he aspires to be. 

But who can tell what really happens in one's con- 
sciousness when one turns seriously into communion 
with one's deeper self? If we turn to our crude analogy 
of nerve cells and connections, which we know to be 
involved in the character and quality of thinking and 
feeling, we may get a definite picture, at whatever cost 
of accuracy. Granting that the highest consciousness 
is conditioned by the most highly and perfectly 
organised nervous system ; that new ideas imply 
the functioning of new areas in the nervous system ; 
that the nerve elements that are concerned in 
spiritual insight are already formed and lying 
ready to function, if only brought into the right co- 
ordination, it is conceivable that during the intense 
experiences attending conversion, under the heat of the 
emotional pressure brought to bear, a harmony is struck 
among these elements which it might have taken months, 
or even years, to accomplish, if one had been left help- 
less to grope in doubt and uncertainty. The analysis 
of the cases before us bears out, from the psychic side, 
this hypothesis, and shows that conversion is often, to 
some extent, an anticipation of the direction of adol- 
escent development. 



VIEW OF THE LINE OF RELIGIOUS GROWTH 407 

It must not be forgotten, however, that the convert 
has usually still to overcome the same adolescent diffi- 
culties as does the person whose growth is gradual. To 
say that the convert anticipates the growth of the other 
does not mean at all that steps in growth have been 
dropped out. One suddenly reaches the stature of a 
man religiously only if, through the gradual and natural 
maturing of his powers, he is potentially already a man. 
The child may map out in the rough the end to be 
attained; the solid structure has yet to be builded. 
The awakening of the association-centres, which gives 
glimpses into the higher life, is one step toward man- 
hood or womanhood. The other more serious step is 
to bring it about that the new life shall be completely 
co-ordinated with the old, and that it shall become 
habitual and easy. Adolescence is a preparation for 
manhood. The function of the whole series of years of 
youth is to produce, out of the dawning spiritual life, 
with its sense of newness, its uncertainty, faltering, 
doubting — no matter in what way it first shows itself 
— a stable and symmetrical manhood and womanhood. 



CHAPTER XXXI 

SOME EDUCATIONAL INFERENCES 

The reader who has followed through the preceding 
pages, may have felt, while looking into these groups 
of facts, the possibility of becoming nature's helper 
toward wiser and better ways of religious education. 
We have now to take some little account of the stock 
of practical wisdom we have gathered. 

We have found ourselves wandering off, here and 
there, into the educational implications of the prin- 
ciples we have chanced to discover, when they seemed 
heavy with practical suggestiveness. In Chapters XIII. 
and XXVIII. we deliberately turned aside to discuss 
the pedagogy of conversion. In the chapter just before 
this, and in several earlier ones, we indulged in little 
digressions on the pedagogy of adolescence. The 
points discussed will not be called up again. We are 
now to turn to a few considerations of a more general 
nature. 

The first thing that impresses us is that the residue 
has shrunken below what we had anticipated while we 
were wandering among the groups of details. It seems 
less than the sum of the bits of wisdom that we seemed 
to gather up here and there. It has been noticeable all 
the way along that some one of our conclusions which 
appeared true at the time has been limited and 
restricted by some other one equally true. In our 
study of groups, sub-groups and individual records, we 
have at last a somewhat contradictory array of results. 
Indeed, if there is any one thing that we learn forcibly 

408 



SOME EDUCATIONAL INFERENCES 409 

from the preceding pages, it is the importance of being 
shy of making too hasty educational inferences. Especi- 
ally is this true in applying to individual instances 
principles that are true for people in general. Tem- 
peraments and the complexities of environment are as 
manifold as the persons who compose the groups we 
have been studying. The first demand is that in 
religious education we adapt ourselves to the needs and 
conditions of each person. One can scarcely think of 
a single pedagogical maxim in regard to religious 
training which, if followed in all cases, might not 
violate the deepest needs of the person whom it is our 
purpose to help. The first requisite is that the teacher 
or spiritual leader shall know something of the case he 
is to deal with — his training, his temperament, and the 
present trend of his life. It requires careful reading 
into human nature to know what a person needs, and 
is ripe for. 

Although it is difficult to lay down rules that will 
apply to individual persons, and to the same person in 
different periods of his development, still the results are 
not so barren as we might at first suppose. The value 
of the study of persons in groups is that it establishes 
certain standards by which to judge individual instances. 
To have well-established types by which to estimate 
religious phenomena is as important in the sphere of 
spiritual things as to have standards of distance in 
physics and astronomy, or laws and principles and 
formulas in mathematics and chemistry. It is of even 
greater importance, inasmuch as the data are intangible. 

We find, in the first place, glancing at the general 
course of development, that there are different lines of 
religious growth. If we classify the persons by the way 
they make the transition from childhood to maturity, 
we have studied at least four fairly distinct types of 
experience. There are, first, those who make the tran- 
sition without any hitch or break, and who reach man- 
hood or womanhood without knowing how or when. 
There are those, again, in whom the currents of fresh 



4 io THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

life break at the surface, and render youth more or less 
tempestuous. Of these, one group is fitted tempera- 
mentally to work themselves into a crisis, and to make 
the transition suddenly. Of this number there are 
those, lastly, who are yet more impulsive, and who not 
only enter adolescence by a conversion, but pass from 
that to maturity in the same way. 

Religious teachers will accomplish the best results 
by taking into account all these ways, which are for 
different qualities of temperament, doubtless, the normal 
lines of growth. Among the Christian churches there 
are distinct ideals held up as the true means of enter- 
ing the spiritual life. A few denominations emphasise 
the fact of sin, set it against that of salvation, and insist 
on a definite, decisive, and more or less momentary 
change of life. Another group of denominations have 
recognised the likelihood of the burst of new life at the 
beginning of adolescence ; they take means to cultivate 
it, and have established the rite of confirmation, which 
symbolises the entrance into the new life. Still a third 
group of churches hold to the idea that the religious life, 
just as the mental or physical, is a gradual development 
and that alone, and have no ceremony to bring about or 
symbolise the birth into the new life. Certain denomi- 
nations have caught up and emphasised one aspect of 
growth, and overlooked others which seem equally 
natural and fundamental. We have seen that these 
groups of persons all reach about the same end. The 
quality of religion which results, and the person's 
attitude toward life have, in general, more similarities 
than differences. They are different ways toward the 
same goal. But now, in spite of the fact that one 
church holds up as its ideal one of these lines of growth, 
and another holds exclusively to another, the persons 
in these churches are scattered among all the groups 
we have studied. They follow the laws written in their 
own beings, rather than the ideal held - up by the 
churches. A few churches recognise, to a certain 
degree, these different tendencies, and attempt to meet 



SOME EDUCATIONAL INFERENCES 411 

them. It is a matter of the greatest moment that 
religious institutions become so plastic that they can 
adapt themselves to the peculiarities and needs of 
individual life, rather than to conform over-strenuously 
to a single, abstract ideal. 

The feature of the study which throws most light on 
the problem of religious education is the setting forth 
of the stages in growth from childhood to maturity. 
Fortunately, we are coming to observe tendencies in 
growth everywhere. Nothing has helped more in inter- 
preting human life and the world about us, has so 
brought order and purpose out of chaos, as our habit of 
seeing everything fit into a process of development. 
Everything is good in proportion as it is seen to con- 
tribute to a higher good. The individual human life, 
too, is a developing thing. Each stage in it contributes 
to the next. The object of all its periods, taken to- 
gether, is to produce a man or woman, as it is the 
purpose of racial life to produce a perfect type of 
humanity. 

There are duties and ideals which are especially 
fitting for each stage in life. And so there is a religious 
ideal peculiar to each age. In secular education we are 
coming rapidly to recognise the varying needs of the 
growing child, and to adapt ourselves to each period of 
growth — to make the most out of each, in order that it 
may lead on easily and naturally to the next. Ethical 
and religious education must likewise adapt themselves 
to the growing personality of the individual. 

We are now to notice briefly the various stages in 
life, and the different emphasis that our religious 
precepts must have in each. For our purpose, we 
shall consider only the principal ones — childhood, 
youth, and manhood or womanhood. 

It is a characteristic of childhood to be lacking in 
self-conscious personality. True enough, each child has 
his own peculiarities, but his acts are largely the result 
of either heredity or imitation. Through hereditary 
traits, the child is bound close to racial life, It ia 



4 i2 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

necessary for its own well-being and for that of humanity 
that it be much like its own. Society would be im- 
possible if a child were born a tree or a bird. The 
instinct of imitation is yet another way nature has of 
making children embody the characteristics of their 
kind. By mimicking the habits of those about him, 
the little dog is becoming more a dog, and the babe 
more human. Through these two sources, the child is 
becoming unconsciously filled with good habits — is 
having ingrained into his nerves, bones and muscles 
customs that will be of utility when he takes his 
place at some future time as a citizen. It has been 
well observed that the helplessness of childhood, and 
the lengthening out of its period of duration has been a 
necessary accompaniment and condition of our evolved 
civilisation. It furnishes a longer time in which to 
acquire good habits. Now the condition that a child 
shall drink in the best of racial life is that it have a con- 
siderable degree of submissiveness. Consequently it has 
been generally recognised that the central precept for 
childhood is obedience. Among different peoples this 
has been regarded as, in early life, the highest virtue. 
What we have noticed in the religion of childhood seems 
to be in accordance with this characteristic. The child 
is credulous. Religion is external to him. He is 
open and receptive toward his surroundings ; he drinks 
in unconsciously the religious influences about him. 
The function of childhood is to furnish for after life a 
rich fund of latent wisdom, and to lay by a stock of 
wholesome tendencies. 

There comes a time, however, when the child must 
awaken to the fact of his own personality. He is later 
to stand as a unit in society, is to be a positive force 
among his fellows. He must become conscious of his 
own powers. To self-consciousness, he must add self- 
direction. He must grow strong, cease to be a mere 
recipient, and become a producer. Now the truest 
message for youth is that which calls out the per- 
sonality into clear identity, which helps it on to its feet 



SOME EDUCATIONAL INFERENCES 413 

Youth starts uncertain of itself, halting and stumbling. 
Morally, physically, every way, the boy or girl in early 
adolescence is awkward and unsteady. The gait is 
ambling, the movements are ungainly, the speech is 
ungraceful. All told, the youth is an uncertain and 
vacillating quantity. He may have to pass through the 
whole range of adolescent years before he gains pos- 
session of himself. It is the business of the parent and 
teacher to help the youth become a man, to inspire con- 
fidence, to have him pause and listen to the voice 
within himself. ' Be still, and know that I am God/ 
the Hebrew prophet put into the mouth of Jehovah. n 
1 Whoso would be a man must be a non-conformist. He ^ 
who would gather immortal palms must not be hindered 
by the name of goodness, but must explore if it be 
goodness. Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of 
your own mind. Absolve you to yourself, and you shall 
have the suffrage of the world/ said Emerson, the herald 
of the gospel of youth. l Insist on yourself; never imitate/ 
1 To thine own self be true/ are the wholesome sentences 
that have called many a slumbering youth into posses- 
sion of himself, and set him into the way which leads to 
strong and beautiful manhood. i Thou art God, thou 
art God/ was the message that burned in the heart of 
the Brahman priests. ' Ye are the sons of God/ said 
Christ. ' The kingdom of heaven is within you/ Go 
into thyself, the deepest of depths, He seemed to say, 
and there thou wilt find thyself to be one with universal 
life and infinite truth. This is distinctively the ideal of 
youth — Be thyself, anjd to thine own self be true. 

This seems to be the true message for youth, even if 
it comes often at the cost of a certain degree of con- 
ceit and self-assertiveness. Youth is proverbially self- 
centered. We have found in our analysis of the religion 
of early adolescence, that although the altruistic impulses 
are inextricably bound up with the rest, the central thing 
in it is self-realisation. Not long ago, the writer listened 
to a body of earnest young people discussing in a 
religious gathering the question of man's duty to 

28 



4 i4 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

himself. A single one out of a large number ventured 
the opinion that one's duty was first to his neighbour 
and to God, and then to himself. The point of view 
generally was that if one is wholly true to his higher 
self, then there can be no accounts to square with any 
one. If we see what nature is trying to produce in 
this stage of growth, we shall not only be patient 
with the egoism of young people, but, on occasion, 
encourage it. The lisping and stammering of a little 
child, if looked upon as a finality, would be a crime 
against language ; but as a step in the child's develop- 
ment, it is not only endurable, but becomes sweet and 
beautiful in what it promises. Youth, too, is only a step 
in growth. The person can carry back into life only 
such strength and poise and self-confidence and helpful- 
ness as he has completely mastered and worked over 
into his own personality. 

' " Faithless and faint of heart," the voice returned, 
" Thou seest no beauty save thou make it first. 
Man, Woman, Nature, each is but a glass 
Where the soul sees the image of herself, 
Visible echoes, offsprings of herself." ' 

He needs to shut himself away from the noisy, hurrying, 
bustling world, and reflect, meditate, commune with the 
life that is springing up within him, and let the scattered 
bits of wisdom that he has gathered here and there flow 
into an organic whole. 

The function, then, of adolescence is to lay the 
foundation through self-realisation for strong, healthy 
and vigorous manhood and womanhood. 

A study of the usual trend of life has shown us that 
the birth of self and the years of effort towards self- 
realisation are only a preparation for a third stage, which 
is one, primarily, of helpfulness and service. Most of 
those who doubt and struggle in youth, persons who are 
avowedly without a religion, those who toil painfully 
into clear possession of themselves, who rebel against 
conventions, who set up their own revelations against 



SOME EDUCATIONAL INFERENCES 415 

those of all the rest — these place their lives again in 
touch with those of their fellows ; come to recognise a law 
and order that is above their own ; come to see that their 
own wills are a reflection of a higher will, and that they 
are one with the life of God and man. It is a conception 
which emerges into clearer and clearer outline as life 
grows more complex, that society is an organism ; that 
its growth and that of each person on whom the whole 
depends consists in an endless process of giving and 
taking ; that human beings are members of one body — 
politically, socially, every way — and must become pro- 
gressively more so, more rationally and intelligently 
bound together. The individual comes to feel that he 
exists for the whole. 

We see this line of advance, also, in historical de- 
velopment. In the midst of the ego-centric philosophy 
of the Upanishads, we come upon a feeling of the limita- 
tions of the self. 'The self is a bank, a boundary. . . . 
He who has crossed that bank, if blind, ceases to be 
blind ; if wounded, ceases to be wounded ; if afflicted, 
ceases to be afflicted. Therefore when that bank has 
been crossed, night becomes day indeed, for the world 
of God is lighted up once for all.' This seemed to be 
the fact of greatest significance in Christ's teaching. 
1 Whosoever will save his life shall lose it ; but whoso- 
ever shall lose his life for My sake and the Gospel's, the 
same shall save it.' 

If we have interpreted the line of growth correctly, 
this is the gospel of mature life : Lose thyself in some 
worthy service. Count thy life cheap, if only it can be 
given up to some high end. 

We have, then, three precepts, representing three 
stages of growth: in childhood, conform; in youth, be 
thyself; in maturity, lose thyself 

It should not be overlooked that these ideals do not 
belong exclusively to certain stages of growth. We 
have only been noticing the special emphasis they 
demand in each of the periods. Altruism we found to 
have a definite birth in adolescence, side by side with 



4 i6 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

the birth of self. It is the anticipation of maturity, just 
as the stilted self-consciousness of a child of six or seven 
seems to be a premonitory symptom of adolescence. 
The impulse toward self-enlargement persists, likewise, 
in the religion of maturity. All these are woven in 
together at every stage of life. Indeed, what we have 
come gradually to appreciate in the preceding chapters 
is that the spiritual life develops out of a complexity of 
instincts. The growth from childhood consists in 
emphasising, enlarging and refining some of these at 
the proper time, and in suppressing others and allowing 
them to fall into a relatively subordinate place, or even 
to wither entirely. 

Religion in its highest form may fairly be regarded 
as a radiation, an intermingling, a complication and 
spiritualisation of the impulses already present in 
human nature. Professor James has stated the prin- 
ciple in a general form, which applies to religious 
education as well. i Every acquired reaction is, as a 
rule, either a complication grafted on a native reaction, 
or a substitute for a native reaction, which the same 
object originally tended to provoke. The teacher's 
art consists in bringing about the substitution or com- 
plication, and success in the art presupposes a sym- 
pathetic acquaintance with the reactive tendencies 
natively there/ 1 

The work of the religious teacher consists in creat- 
ing such an environment that each of the instincts 
which enter into the fabric of religion shall be called 
out through the proper stimuli ; that they be lifted up 
into the higher psychic centres ; that each shall have its 
due emphasis during its nascent period of development ; 
that they be richly interwoven into the texture of 
the normal psychic reactions, and thereby become 
spiritualised. 

This brings us to one of the most suggestive prac- 
tical considerations, namely, the importance of wisely 

1 William James, Talks to Teachers on Psychology ; and to Students on 
Some of Life's Ideals. 1899. 



SOME EDUCATIONAL INFERENCES 417 

anticipating the stages of growth and leading on naturally 
and easily from one stage into the next. 

The extreme difficulties and friction that so fre- 
quently attend religious development lead one to believe 
that there is much needless waste. Life seems to take 
a zigzag course, instead of following a direct line toward 
what appears to be its goal. Growth too often proceeds 
by a series of maladjustments and corrections, by grop- 
ing in the dark rather than by moving straight onward. 
The highest function of education is to conserve the 
life-forces, to produce the best results with the least 
expenditure of energy. With the ideal ends of growth 
in view, and with a clear insight into the lines along 
which it normally proceeds, it should be more and 
more possible to escape pitfalls, and to make life move 
on inevitably toward the fullest, most symmetrical pro- 
portions. If we come to see clearly that religion is the 
outgrowth of native instincts, we shall see that it is 
possible to play upon these instincts and elicit them at 
any point along the line of growth. The friction is 
largely due to the fact that we stumble unprepared 
upon new things too great for immediate assimilation. 
Coming into adolescence, for example, is frequently 
attended by a shock; persons suddenly come upon 
the recognition of great, new demands that must be 
met, and are thrown into confusion. Skill in education 
consists in taking off the newness of the next step in 
growth, by drawing those instincts into activity in an 
earlier stage, which are to function more strongly in a 
later. If the little child is called out into sympathetic 
activity in small ways, the foundations are being laid 
for the disinterested love and service that are to char- 
acterise its life in maturity. Bits of duty and responsi- 
bility in childhood, if faithfully discharged, tend to call 
forth a life which can meet the sense of obligation, that 
often rises mountain high in youth and crushes the 
spirit. If, as soon as the intellect begins to pry into 
things, its craving to comprehend the world be suffici- 
ently met and satisfied, the youth may not have to 



418 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

choose between authority and reason and narrowly 
cling to either. If the child is kept doing things which 
imply religion, while yet ignorant of their meaning, and 
the youth is encouraged to carry into action the wisdom 
that comes to him, the way will be paved for the life of 
conduct which is to supplant the adolescent life especially 
absorbed in reflection and insight. 

In many such ways it seems possible to eliminate 
unnecessary steps in growth ; to obviate wandering 
aimlessly and ignorantly here and there in the stream 
of development ; or, as often occurs, to pass into some 
side channel or eddy, and remain there, either in the 
innocence of childhood or in the self-assertion or negation 
of youth. 

While it is important to anticipate stages of growth 
and prepare the way for them, it is just as important 
that the different steps should not be hastened unduly. 
If each has its place to fulfil in preparing for the mature 
life of growth and service, it should be given time to 
ripen to its full perfection. It seems that nature has a 
purpose in lengthening out the years of childhood — the 
age of receptivity — when the child is drinking in the 
influences and forming the habits which are the stock 
on which it is to draw in after life. A purpose seems 
to underlie also the drawing out of adolescence to more 
than a decade in duration. There is often a tendency 
to defeat the ends nature apparently has in view, by 
skipping steps, by forcing the child to the definite 
religious awakening which belongs to youth, by hasten- 
ing the youth into missionary work, or other phases of 
intense activity and assumed productivity, while he 
should be gaining self-mastery and thorough assimila- 
tion of the wisdom which, as a mature person, he is to 
bring back to the world. In organised society this 
danger is very great. Religious institutions have 
gathered up through experience a knowledge of the 
ends of religious growth, and hold to them with un- 
swerving insistency. Society, which is composed of 
adults, sees truth naturally from its own point of view; 



SOME EDUCATIONAL INFERENCES 419 

the gospel of mature life crystallises into a religious 
ideal which is not only held up to guide grown men 
and women, but is thoughtlessly thrust upon children 
and youths as well. It may be the truest wisdom of 
those who teach it, and yet not fit the needs of younger 
persons. Even little children are made to assume the 
religious customs of grown people, and often not in 
ways appropriate to them, but in forms adapted to 
their elders. Just at the transition from childhood to 
adolescence — at the point at which one begins to gain 
a first-hand grasp of religious truth — is another step, 
as we saw in an earlier chapter, at which the enthusiasm 
of grown persons often gets the better of discretion. 
The testimony of those whose whole youth seems to 
have lost its equilibrium through inopportune respond- 
ing, while yet only children, to the gospel of repentance, 
or by following the advice of some well-meaning person 
who did not understand the function of the first serious 
questioning of a child into religious truth, is a pathetic 
story. Just when the soul begins to put out its tentacles 
and feel its way into the higher life, it often happens 
that someone crashes into it with a gospel that con- 
tradicts every need of its nature. The disturbances of 
youth seem to be as much due to lack of sympathy of 
older people with the needs of human nature as to 
temperamental peculiarities and physiological defects. 

The interests of the religious life demand that in 
venturing to help in the processes of growth from 
childhood to maturity there should be a tact, a know- 
ledge, a delicacy of treatment, in some measure com- 
mensurate with the infinite fineness of the organism 
with which we are dealing. When, and to what 
extent, should the child be left with the playful 
imagery that makes up his early religious conceptions ? 
how far should he conform to the customs of those 
about him ? under what conditions should a person be 
let alone to commune with the life that is speaking 
through him ? is the course of his life already wisely 
directed, and gravitating surely and steadily toward 



4 2o THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

what seems to be the goal of spiritual attainment ? are 
the threads of dawning consciousness being skilfully 
knit and the tension of feeling symmetrically strung to 
set the new life going in the right direction, and tune it to 
every virtue ? is this person ready for the magic stroke 
which is to change the child into the man ? does he 
only need a hazy mind clarified and a struggling spirit 
calmed, or has he a distorted attitude of life which 
should be violently forsaken? should he be induced 
into intense activity? would his life be perfected by a 
fuller recognition of the forces at work within him, or 
does he need to be filled and thrilled with the ideal 
of self-forgetfulness ? These, and many such questions, 
should be taken into account, at least implicitly, before 
one ventures to interfere in the delicate processes that 
are going on in the religious life of any human 
being. 

This wisdom will come about only when we have 
gained a knowledge — a more intimate knowledge than 
we now possess — of the ends nature has in view in 
religious development and the lines of approach along 
which these ends are to be accomplished ; of the factors 
which enter into fully-developed religion ; of the steps, 
and their relation to one another, which are involved in 
the line of growth ; and, furthermore, a knowledge 
of human nature in all its complexity and diversity. 



INDEX 



Abnormal aspects of conversion, 
163 et seq., 217, 226, 230, 330, 
3SS. 

Adler, F., 193. 

Adolescence and conversion, 44 et 
seq., 147 ; spontaneous religious 
awakening in, 195 et seq. ; 
storm and stress during, 212 
et seq, ; doubt during, 232 et 
seq, ; birth of larger self in, 
251 et seq,; substitutes for re- 
ligion during, 268 et seq, ; a 
distinct stage of growth, 365. 

Adult life, the period of recon- 
struction, 277 et seq. ; its 
beliefs, 311 et seq.; religious 
feelings of, 324 et seq. ; its 
motives and purposes, 33y 
et seq. 

Esthetic interests, 272, 287. 

Age and conversion, 28 et seq., 55 
et seq. ; and religious awaken- 
ings, 202, 205 ; and doubt, 239, 
320 ; and feelings, 333 ; in re- 
gard to ideals, 343. 

Altruistic motives to conversion, 52 
et seq. ; as ideals, 340 et seq. 

Automatism in conversion, y^, 10 1 
et seq. 

1 Back-sliding,' 360. 
Baldwin, C. G., 139. 
Barnes, M. S., 36. 
Bierent, 38, 43, 96, 207. 
Biological view of conversion, 145 

et seq. 
Bodily growth and conversion, 38, 

45. 
Bowditch, 36. 
Brooke, S., 287. 



Bryan, W. C, 262. 
Burnham, 38, 207, 272. 
Burk, F., 38, 45, 150. 

Carlyle, 184. 

Carpenter, 1 11. 

Cartwright, P., 22, 168. 

Chadwick, 36. 

Child, C. M., 112. _ 

Childhood, conversion in, 34, 36 ; 
religion of, 188 et seq., 332. 

Christ, belief in, 321, 369. 

Clouston, 195, 207, 228, 241. 

Confirmation, 21. 

Conversion, definition of, 21 ; at 
what age most frequent, 28 
et seq. ; and puberty, 37 et 
seq. ; and bodily growth, 38 ; 
and adolescence, 44 et seq. ; 
motives and forces of, 49 et 
seq. ; experiences preceding, 58 
et seq. ; mental and bodily affec- 
tions during, 76 et seq. ; what 
it consists in, 90 et seq. ; con- 
scious and sub - conscious ele- 
ments in, 101 et seq. ; feelings 
following, 118 et seq,; as a 
process of unselfing, 127 et 
seq, ; regarded as a normal 
phenomenon, 135 et seq, ; 
sociological and biological view 
of, 145 et seq ; physiological 
view of, 149 et seq. ; psycho- 
logical view of, 153 et seq. ; 
its abnormal aspects, 163 et 
seq. ; growth after, 353 et 
seq. 

* Conviction,' 58 et seq., 97 et 
seq. 

Curtis, 269. 



421 



422 



INDEX 



Daniels, A., 4, 149. 

Davids, J. W., 35. 

Deach, I., 375. 

Depression, 136. 

Donaldson, H. H., 45, 150. 

Doubt, 232 et seq. 9 271, 303, 399. 

Education, religious, 8, 408 et 

seq. 
Egoistic impulses, 340 et seq, 
Eliot, George, 184. 
Ellis, Havelock, 79, 80, 207. 
Epilepsy, 227. 
Ethical instinct, 270, 274, 321. 

Fear as a motive for conversion, 

52 et seq. 
Fiske, J., 192. 
Flechsig, 150, 
Fox, 22. 

Gilbert, J. A., 37. 
God, belief in, 321, 368. 
Goethe, 184. 
Gough, G. B., 86. 
Gowers, 70. 

Hadley, H. H., 86. 

Hale, E. E., 305. 

Hall, Stanley, 38, 192. 

Hallucinations, 73. 

Hamilton, Sir W. R., 110. 

Hancock, 35. 

Harris, R. P., 43. 

Harter, N., 262. 

Herrick, S. S., 40. 

History in relation to religious psy- 
chology, 3. ( 

Hygiene and religion, 230, 250. 

Hypnotism and revivalist methods, 
171. 

Hysteria, 70, 250. 



Ideals, religious, 338 et 

37 1 -. 
Immortality, belief in, 321. 
Insanity, 241, 264, 274, 388. 

James, W., 167, 416. 
Johnston, F., 354. 
Jordan, D. S., 175- 
Joy, 136. 



seq., 



Kaes, 150. 
Kennedy, H., 40. 
Kingsley, Charles, 184. 

Lancaster, G., 201, 213, 264. 
Le Bon, 167. 
Lesshaft, 307. 
Lindley, E. H., 36. 
Livermore, Mary, 184. 
Lukens, H. T., 259. 

Malling-Hansen, 359. 

Marshall, H. R., 348. 

Martineau, H., 184. 

Martineau, J., 192. 

Menstruation, 43. 

Miles, C., 349. 

Mill, J. S., 211. 

Missionary spirit, 256. 

Moll, A., 168, 172. 

Moody, 157. 

Morbidity, see Abnormal aspects. 

Mysticism, 330. 

Natural selection in religion, 399. 
Newness, sense of, 119, 125 et seq. 
Nutt, A. G, 213. 

Original sin, 61. 

Pathological aspects of conver- 
sion, 163. 

Paulsen, 9. 

Philosophy in relation to religion, 6. 

Psychology in relation to religion, 4. 

Puberty and conversion, ^7 e t se tf-> 
149, 206, 401. 

Quaternions, discovery of method 
of, no. 

Remorse as a motive to conversion, 

52 et seq. 
Revivals, 53, 66 et seq. t 96, 165, 

iji et seq. 
Rhythm, 357. 
Roberts, C., 36. 
Robertson, F., 184. 
Royce, 9. 
Ruskin, 184. 

Sanctification, 375 et seq. 



INDEX 



423 



Scott, Colin, 148, 168, 217. 

Season and religious feeling, 359. 

Sexual differences in religious 
growth, 28 et seq., 52, 63, 
65> 78, 81, 94, 104, 121, 123, 
128, 192, 193, 198, 202, 205, 
220, 222, 225, 236, 238, 241, 
273, 280, 294, 312, 316, 320, 

332, 343, 357, 371. 
Sexual instinct and religion, 147, 

168, 206, 207, 401 et seq. 
Sexual temptations, 70, 206, 220. 
Sidis, B., 163. 
Sin, sense of, 58 et seq., 69 et 

seq., 152, 163, 215. 
Smith, T., 112. 
Sociology in relation to religious 

psychology, 3, 145 et seq., 

233. 

Spencer, Herbert, 4, 155. 
Storm and stress, 213 et seq., 240, 
246, 364, 399. 



Sub-conscious element in conver- 
sion, 10 1 et seq. 
Suggestibility, 73, 81, 171. 
Sudden awakenings, 137 et seq. 

Temperament and religious experi- 
ence, 71. 

Theology in relation to religious 
psychology, 6. 

Titchener, E. B., 358. 

Tolstoi, 184, 261. 

Trance states, 168. 

Tylor, 4. 

Unconscious cerebration, 112. 
Unselfing, conversion as, 145. 

Vulpius, 150. 

Whitefield, 22. 
Will in conversion, in. 



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REYNOLDS, SIR JOSHUA. By ELSA D'ESTERRE- 
KEELING. 

" An admirable little volume . . . Miss Keeling writes very justly and 
sympathetically. " — Daily Telegraph. 

" Useful as a handy work of reference." — Athen&um. 

TURNER, J. W. M. By ROBERT CHIGNELL, Author of 
"The Life and Paintings of Vicat Cole, R.A." 
" This book is thoroughly competent, and at the same time it is in the best 
sense popular in style and treatment." — Literary World. 

ROMNEY, GEORGE. By Sir HERBERT MAXWELL, 
Bart., F.R.S. 

11 Sir Herbert Maxwell's brightly written and accurate monograph will not 
disappoint even exacting students, while its charming reproductions are 
ceitain to render it an attractive gift-book." — Standard. 

" It is a pleasure to read such a biography as this, so well considered, and 
written with such insight and literary skill." — Daily News. 

WILKIE, SIR DAVID. By Professor BAYNE. 
CONSTABLE, JOHN. By the EARL OF PLYMOUTH. 
RAEBURN, SIR HENRY. By EDWARD PINNINGTON. 
GAINSBOROUGH, THOMAS. By A. E. FLETCHER. 
HOGARTH, WILLIAM. By Prof. G. BALDWIN BROWN. 
MOORE, HENRY. By FRANK J. MACLEAN. 
LEIGHTON, LORD. By EDGCUMBE STALEY. 
MORLAND, GEORGE. By D. H. WILSON, M.A., LLM. 
WILSON, RICHARD. By BEAUMONT FLETCHER. 
# MILLAIS, SIR JOHN EVERETT. By J. EADIE REID. 

New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. 



The Contemporary Science Series. 

6 Edited by Havelock Ellis. 

. m 1 2 mo. Cloth. Price $1.50 per Volume. 

f £ I. THE EVOLUTION OF SEX. By Prof. Patrick Geddes 

c » and J. A. Thomson. With 90 Illustrations. Second Edition. 

^ ~ " The authors have brought to the task — as indeed their names guarantee 

''g £> — a wealth of knowledge, a lucid and attractive method of treatment, and a 

« ^j rich vein of picturesque language." — Nature. 

J j II. ELECTRICITY IN MODERN LIFE. By G. W. de 
g Q Tunzelmann. With 88 Illustrations. 

P4 >n "A clearly written and connected sketch of what is known about elec- 

tricity and magnetism, the more prominent modern applications, and the 
.o ^ principles on which they are based." — Saturday Review. 

|1 III. THE ORIGIN OF THE ARYANS. By Dr. Isaac 

A S Taylor. Illustrated. Second Edition. 

"£ g " Canon Taylor is probably the most encyclopaedic all-round scholar now 

o ** living. His new volume on the Origin of the Aryans is a first-rate example 

^ *> of the excellent account to which he can turn his exceptionally wide and 

. rH varied information. . . . Masterly and exhaustive. " — Pall Mall Gazette. 

d'g IV. PHYSIOGNOMY AND EXPRESSION. By P. Mante- 

w cs GAZZA. Illustrated. 

^ <D "Brings this highly interesting subject even with the latest researches. 

o 513 ... Professor Mantegazza is a writer full of life and spirit, and the natural 

is 0« attractiveness of his subject is not destroyed by his scientific handling of it." 

%<+« — Literary World (Boston). 

^>> V. EVOLUTION AND DISEASE. By J. B. Sutton, F.R.C.S. 
PQ 3 With 135 Illustrations. 

JJ "The book is as interesting as a novel, without sacrifice of accuracy or 

j system, and is calculated to give an appreciation of the fundamentals of 

<J ^ pathology to the lay reader, while forming a useful collection of illustrations 
Z •• of disease for medical reference."— Journal of 'Mental Science. 

§£ VI. THE VILLAGE COMMUNITY. By G. L. Gomme. 

CtfUJ Illustrated. 

^ *"* " His book will probably remain for some time the best work of reference 

QtftU for facts bearing on those traces of the village community which have not 

EC been effaced by conquest, encroachment, and the heavy hand of Roman 

Hr< law." — Scottish Leader. 

VII. THE CRIMINAL. By Havelock Ellis. Illustrated 
Fourth Edition, Revised and Enlarged. 
"The sociologist, the philosopher, the philanthropist, the novelist — 
all, indeed, for whom the study of human nature has any attraction — will 
find Mr. Ellis full of interest and suggestiveness." — Academy. 

New York : Charles Scribner's Sons. 



VIII. SANITY AND INSANITY. By Dr. Charles Mercier. 

Illustrated. 
" Taken as a whole, it is the brightest book on the physical side of 
mental science published in our time." — Pall Mall Gazette. 

IX. HYPNOTISM. By Dr. Albert Moll. New and Enlarged 

Edition. 
" Marks a step of some importance in the study of some difficult physio- 
logical and psychological problems which have not yet received much 
attention in the scientific world of England." — Nature. 

X. MANUAL TRAINING. By Dr. C. M. Woodward, Directoi 

of the Manual Training School, St. Louis. Illustrated. 
" There is no greater authority on the subject than Professor Woodward." c * ^ 
— Manchester Guardian. % J 

XL THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES. By E. Sidney Wq 
Hartland. 15 h 

"Mr. Hartland's book will win the sympathy of all earnest students, E*£ 
both by the knowledge it displays, and by a thorough love and appreciation ~ a 
of his subject, which is evident throughout." — Spectator. W *4 

XII. PRIMITIVE FOLK. By Elie Reclus. |^ 

"An attractive and useful introduction to the study of some aspects of £ 
ethnography." — Nature. £; PQ 

XIII. THE EVOLUTION OF MARRIAGE. By Professor j^ 

Letourneau. o & 

"Among the distinguished French students of sociology, Professor Letour- ^ ^ 

neau has long stood in the first rank. He approaches the great study of £5 

man free from bias and shy of generalisations. To collect, scrutinise, and 5 ^ 

appraise facts is his chief business. In the volume before us he shows these >j zj 

qualities in an admirable degree." — Science. ^ S 

XIV. BACTERIA AND THEIR PRODUCTS. By Dr. G. C^ 

Sims Woodhead. Illustrated. Second Edition, ^Z 

" An excellent summary of the present state of knowledge of the subject." £} 

— Lancet. I *£ Oi 

XV. EDUCATION AND HEREDITY. By J. M. Guyau. g ^ z 

"It is at once a treatise on sociology, ethics, and pedagogics. It is © q& 
doubtful whether, among all the ardent evolutionists who have had their say H Z jjj 
on the moral and the educational question, any one has carried forward the q ^j 2 
new doctrine so boldly to its extreme logical consequence." — Professor Q .- g 
Sully m Mind. «< 

XVI. THE MAN OF GENIUS. By Prof. Lombroso. Illus- JO 
trated. > 

" By far the most comprehensive and fascinating collection of facts and Q 
generalisations concerning genius which has yet been brought together." — " 
Journal of Mental Science. ^ 

New York : Charles Scribner's Sons. ^ 



XVII. THE HISTORY OF THE EUROPEAN FAUNA. 
By R. F. Scharff, B.Sc, Ph.D., F.Z.S. Illustrated. 

XVIII. PROPERTY : ITS ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT. 

By Ch. Letourneau, General Secretary to the Anthro- 
pological Society, Paris, and Professor in the School of Anthro- 
pology, Paris. 
" M. Letourneau has read a great deal, and he seems to us to have 

selected and interpreted his facts with considerable judgment and learning." 

— Westminster Review, > 

XIX. VOLCANOES, PAST AND PRESENT. By Prof. 
Edward Hull, LL.D., F.R.S. 

"A very readable account of the phenomena of volcanoes and earth- 
quakes. " — Nature. 

XX. PUBLIC HEALTH. By Dr. J. F. J. Sykes. With 

numerous Illustrations. 
"Not by any means a mere compilation or a dry record of details and 
statistics, out it takes up essential points in evolution, environment, prophy- 
laxis, and sanitation bearing upon the preservation of public health." — 
Lcrncet. 

XXI. MODERN METEOROLOGY. An Account of the 
Growth and Present Condition of some Branches 
of Meteorological Science. By Frank Waldo, Ph.D., 
Member of the German and Austrian Meteorological Societies, 
etc.; late Junior Professor, Signal Service, U.S.A. With 112 
Illustrations. 

"The present volume is the best on the subject for general use that we 
have seen." — Daily Telegraph (London). 

XXII. THE GERM-PLASM : A THEORY OF HEREDITY. 
By AUGUST Weismann, Professor in the University of 
Freiburg-in-Breisgau. With 24 Illustrations. $2.50. 

''There has been no work published since Darwin's own books which 
has so thoroughly handled the matter treated by him, or has done so much 
to place in order and clearness the immense complexity of the factors of 
heredity, or, lastly, has brought to light so many new facts and considerations 
bearing on the subject." — British Medical Journal. 

XXIII. INDUSTRIES OF ANIMALS. By E. F. Houssay. 

With numerous Illustrations. 
" His accuracy is undoubted, yet his facts out-marvel all romance. These 
facts are here made use of as materials wherewith to form the mighty fabric 
of evolution." — Manchester Guardian. 



New York : Charles Scribner's Sons. 



XXIV. MAN AND WOMAN. By Havelock Ellis. Illus- 
trated. Fourth and Revised Edition. 

"Mr. Havelock Ellis belongs, in some measure, to the continental school 
of anthropologists ; but while equally methodical in the collection of facts, 
he is far more cautious in the invention of theories, and he has the further 
distinction of being not only able to think, but able to write. His book is 
a sane and impartial consideration, from a psychological and anthropological 
point of view, of a subject which is certainly of primary interest." — 
Athenamm. 

XXV. THE EVOLUTION OF MODERN CAPITALISM. 

By John A. Hobson, M.A. (New and Revised Edition.) 

" Every page affords evidence of wide and minute study, a weighing of 
facts as conscientious as it is acute, a keen sense of the importance of certain 
points as to which economists of all schools have hitherto been confused and 
careless, and an impartiality generally so great as to give no indication of his 
[Mr. Hobson's] personal sympathies."— Pall Mall Gazette. 

XXVI. APPARITIONS AND THOUGHT - TRANSFER- 
ENCE. By Frank Podmore. M.A. 

"A very sober and interesting little book. . . . That thought-transfer- 
ence is a real thing, though not perhaps a very common thing, he certainly 
shows. " — Spectator. 

XXVII. AN INTRODUCTION TO COMPARATIVE 

PSYCHOLOGY. By Professor C. Lloyd Morgan. With 

Diagrams. 
" A strong and complete exposition of Psychology, as it takes shape in a 
mind previously informed with biological science. . . . Well written, ex- 
tremely entertaining, and intrinsically valuable." — Saturday Review. 

XXVIII. THE ORIGINS OF INVENTION : A Study of 
Industry among Primitive Peoples. By Otis T. Mason, 
Curator of the Department of Ethnology in the United States 
National Museum. 

"A valuable history of the development of the inventive faculty." — 
Nature. 

XXIX. THE GROWTH OF THE BRAIN: A Study of 
the Nervous System in relation to Education. By 
Henry Herbert Donaldson, Professor of Neurology in the 
University of Chicago. 

" We can say with confidence that Professor Donaldson has executed his 
work with much care, judgment, and discrimination.'"' — The Lancet. 

XXX. EVOLUTION IN ART: As Illustrated by the 
Life-Histories of Designs. By Professor Alfred C. 
H ADDON. With 130 Illustrations. 

"It is impossible to speak too highly of this most unassuming and 
invaluable book." ' —Journal of Anthropological Institute. 

New York : Charles Scribner's Sons. 



XXXI. THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE EMOTIONS. By 
Th. Ribot, Professor at the College of France, Editor of the 
Revue Philosophiqite. 

" Professor Ribot's treatment is careful, modern, and adequate." — 
Academy. 

XXXII. HALLUCINATIONS AND ILLUSIONS : A Study 
of the Fallacies of Perception. By Edmund Parish. 

"This remarkable little volume." — Daily News. 

XXXIII. THE NEW PSYCHOLOGY. By E. W. Scripture, 
Ph.D. (Leipzig). With 124 Illustrations. 

XXXIV. SLEEP : Its Physiology, Pathology, Hygiene, and 
Psychology. By Marie de Manaceine (St. Petersburg). 

Illustrated. 

XXXV. THE NATURAL HISTORY OF DIGESTION. 
By A. Lockhart Gillespie, M.D., F.R.C.P. Ed., F.R.S. 
Ed. With a large number of Illustrations and Diagrams. 

"Dr. Gillespie's work is one that has been greatly needed. No com- 
prehensive collation of this kind exists in recent English Literature." — 
American Journal of the Medical Sciences. 

XXXVI. DEGENERACY: Its Causes, Signs, and Results. 
By Professor Eugene S. Talbot, M.D., Chicago. With 
Illustrations. 

"The author is bold, original, and suggestive, and his work is a con- 
tribution of real and indeed great value, more so on the whole than anything 
that has yet appeared in this country." — American Journal of Psychology. 

XXXVII. THE RACES OF MAN: A Sketch of Ethno- 
graphy and Anthropology. By J. Deniker. With 178 
Illustrations. 

"Dr. Deniker has achieved a success which is well-nigh phenomenal." — 
British Medical fournal. 

XXXVIII. THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION. An 
Empirical Study of the Growth of Religious Con- 
sciousness. By Edwin Diller Starbuck Ph.D., Assistant 
Professor of Education, Leland' Stanford Junior University. 

" No one interested in the study of religious life and experience can 
afford to neglect this volume." — Morning Herald. 

XXXIX. THE CHILD : A Study in the Evolution of Man. 
By Dr. Alexander Francis Chamberlain, M.A., Ph.D., 
Lecturer on Anthropology in Clark University, Worcester 
(Mass.). With Illustrations. 

"The work contains much curious information, and should be studied by 
those who have to do with children." — Sheffield Daily Telegraph. 

New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. 



XL. THE MEDITERRANEAN RACE. By Professor Sergi. 
With over ioo Illustrations. 
" M. Sergi has given us a lucid and complete exposition of his views on a 
subject of supreme interest." — Irish Times. 

XLI. THE STUDY OF RELIGION. By Morris Jastrow, 
Jun., Ph.D., Professor in the University of Pennsylvania. 
"This work presents a careful survey of the subject, and forms an 
admirable introduction to any particular branch of it." — Methodist Times. 

XLII. HISTORY OF GEOLOGY AND PALAEONTOLOGY 

TO THE END OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 
By Karl von Zittel. 

"It is a very masterly treatise, written with a wide grasp of recent 
discoveries. " — Publishers' Circular* 

XLIII. THE MAKING OF CITIZENS : A Study in Com- 
parative Education. By R. E. Hughes, M.A. (Oxon.), 
B.Sc. (Lond.). 
" Mr. Hughes gives a lucid account of the exact position of Education in 
England, Germany, France, and the United States. The statistics 
present a clear and attractive picture of the manner in which one of the 
greatest questions now at issue is being solved both at home and abroad." 
— Standard. 

XLIV. MORALS: A Treatise on the Psycho-Sociological 
Bases of Ethics. By Professor G. L. Duprat. Trans- 
lated by W. J. Greenstreet, M.A., F.R.A.S. 

"The present work is representative of the modern departure in the 
treatment of the theory of morals. The author brings a wide knowledge 
to bear on his subject." — Education. 

XLV. A STUDY OF RECENT EARTHQUAKES. By 
Charles Davison, D.Sc, F.G.S. With Illustrations. 
11 Dr. Davison has done his work well." — Westminster Gazette. 

XLVI. MODERN ORGANIC CHEMISTRY. By Dr. C. A. 
Keane, D.Sc, Ph.D., F.I.C. With Diagrams. 
" This volume provides an instructive and suggestive survey of the great 
range of knowledge covered by modern organic chemistry." — Scotsman. 

TO-DAY'S ADDITIONS:— 

THE CRIMINAL. By Havelock Ellis. Fourth Edition, 
Revised and Enlarged. 

XLVII. THE JEWS : A Study of Race and Environment. 

By Dr. MAURICE FlSHBERG. 
" It shows abounding evidence in its pages that it is intended to show, 
immense industry, consummate pains, vast literary and statistical resources. 
It contains, to be sure, much information of great value, and it sets forth 
many facts absorbing in their interest for any who desire to study the 
Jewish people. "—Jewish Chronicle. 

New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. 



IBSEN'S DRAMAS. 

Edited by WILLIAM ARCHER. 

THREE PLAYS TO THE VOLUME. 

i2mo, CLOTH, PRICE $1.25 PER VOLUME. 

" We seem at last to be shown men and women as they are ; and at first it 
is more than we can endure. . . . All Ibsen's characters speak and act as if 
they were hypnotised, and under their creator's imperious demand to reveal 
themselves. There never was such a mirror held up to nature before : it is 
too terrible. . . . Yet we must return to Ibsen, with his remorseless surgery , 
his remorseless electric-light, until we, too, have grown strong and learned to 
face the naked^-if necessary, the flayed and bleedittg — reality" — Speaker 
(London). 

w Vol. I. "A DOLUS HOUSE," "THE LEAGUE OF 

§ YOUTH," and "THE PILLARS OF SOCIETY." With 

£> Portrait of the Author, and Biographical Introduction by 

d WilliamArcher. 

^ Vol. II. "GHOSTS," "AN ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE," 
and "THE WILD DUCK." With an Introductory Note. 

Col. III. "LADY INGER OF OSTRAT," "THE VIKINGS 
AT HELGELAND," "THE PRETENDERS." With an 
^ Introductory Note* 

£ Vol. IV. "EMPEROR AND GALILEAN. " With an 

<J Introductory Note by William Archer. 

£ Vol. V. " ROSMERSHOLM," "THE LADY FROM THE 
CO SEA," tk HEDDA GABLER." Translated by William 

ARCHER. With an Introductory Note. 

Vol. VI. "PEER GYNT: A DRAMATIC POEM." 
Authorised Translation by William and Charles Archer. 

The sequence of the plays in each volume is chronological ; the complete 
set of volumes comprising the dramas thus presents them in chronological 
order. 

"The art of prose translation does not perhaps enjoy a very high literary 
status in England, but we have no hesitation in numbering the presen 
version of Ibsen, so far as it has gone (Vols. I. and II.), among the very 
best achievements, in that kind, of our generation. ,, — Academy. 

;. "We have seldom, if ever, met with a translation so absolutely 

Idiomatic. " — Glasgow Herald. 



New York : Charles Scribner's Sons. 



JUL 5 1912 






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